Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife v. Klamath Indian Tribe

In 1901 the Klamath Indian Tribe ceded 621,824 acres of reservation land to the United States. The question pre*755sented in this case is whether the Tribe thereafter retained a special right to hunt and fish on the ceded lands free of state regulation. In answering that question we consider not only the terms of the 1901 Cession Agreement but also the predecessor 1864 Treaty that established the Tribe’s original reservation and certain other events in the history of the Tribe.

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In the early 19th century, the Klamath and Modoc Tribes and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians claimed aboriginal title…