Court Opinion

ID: 9714099
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:30:33.101469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:23.424621
License: Public Domain

Dieterich, J.
(dissenting). I cannot agree with the majority decision that the Termination Act abrogates the rights of the Menominee Indians to exercise their hunting and fishing rights free from the state’s game laws. The majority concedes that under the 1848 and 1854 treaties the hunting and fishing rights of the Menominee Indians were held free from state game law restrictions. The Termination Act of 1961, contains no reference to the subject, and does not purport to affect any treaty rights the Indians may have. The Termination Act is based on the assumption that during the years of government supervision of Indian affairs, the government has so advanced and prepared the Indians for modern living, that they have become self-sufficient. The *389amount of fiscal aid provided the Menominees in the short period since the enactment of the Termination Act is by itself sufficient to show the unsoundness of this assertion. While hunting and fishing is not in itself a sufficient supplement to the modern way of life, it does help. The rights of the Menominee Indian to hunt and fish on tribal lands far outweigh any need of the state of Wisconsin or any of its agencies to invade these rights. This is especially so in that these rights were reserved to the Menominees under the treaties of 1848 and 1854.
An examination of the record discloses that the deed of forest lands from the United States to Menominee Enterprises, Inc., dated April 26, 1961, contains a provision prohibiting transfer of ownership of the lands for a period of thirty years without prior consent of the state conservation commission and approval of the Governor. The conveyances from Menominee Enterprises to the individual Menominee Indian landholders give Menominee Enterprises an option to repurchase the lands in the event that the grantees decide to sell. In other words, Menominee Enterprises exercises complete control over the lands. It should also be noted that the Termination Act provides a way of life for the Indians by a provision that the timberland be operated on a sustained-yield basis. Their other way of life, namely by hunting and fishing, is not referred to at all. The conveyances give Menominee Enterprises complete control over transfer of the lands, and the sustained-yield provisions of the Termination Act control the use of the lands. How, then, can this court say that the Indians have been given the same rights as other citizens of Wisconsin, when control over any transfer of their lands is to be held in trust for a period of thirty years, and when the use to which the Menominees may put these lands is closely regulated by the provisions of the Termination Act, and the Menominee Indians’ Assistance Trust. In effect, the *390Menominee Indians have not received full status as citizens, and under the facts of the instant case, retain their inherent tribal hunting and fishing rights, which were assured to them in perpetuity under the terms of the treaties of 1848 and 1854. I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.