Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States

The Menominee Tribe of Indians was granted a reservation in Wisconsin by the Treaty of Wolf River in 1854. 10 Stat. 1064. By this treaty the Menominees retro-ceded certain lands they had acquired under an earlier treaty and the United States confirmed to them the Wolf River Reservation “for a home, to be held as Indian lands *406are held.” Nothing was said in the 1854 treaty about hunting and fishing rights. Yet we agree with the Court of Claims1 that the language “to be held as Indian lands are held” includes the right to fish and to hunt. The record shows that the lands covered by the Wolf…