Aleut Community of St. Paul Island v. United States

Appellants Community and Tribe are groups of native Alaskans who traditionally sustained themselves by hunting and fishing on islands located in the'Bering ’Sea which separates what is now the United States and the Soviet Union. Their primary source of food and clothing was the fish and seals which were abundant in the waters within and surrounding these islands. The first contact with the white man appears to have been with Russian traders in the latter part of the eighteenth century. At about this time Russia asserted dominion over the islands in question and in 1T99 proceeded to control…