Sohappy v. Smith (Belloni decision)

What happened

Fourteen individual members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation sued members of Oregon's Fish Commission and Game Commission. They asked the federal court to define their treaty right "of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places" on the Columbia River and its tributaries, and how far Oregon could regulate Indian fishing.

The United States filed a second case for the Yakima, Umatilla and Nez Perce, and the Warm Springs Tribe joined. The court heard the cases together. The tribes' rights came from four 1855 treaties, signed with the Yakima, the Tribes of Middle Oregon, the Umatilla and the Nez Perce and ratified and proclaimed in 1859. Each secured "the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places in common with citizens of the Territory."

Judge Belloni, applying the Supreme Court's Puyallup decision, wrote that a state may regulate off-reservation treaty fishing only "in the interest of conservation," and its rules must meet appropriate standards and not discriminate against the Indians. He wrote that Oregon must "manage the over-all fish run in a way that does not discriminate against the treaty Indians as it has heretofore been doing." The treaty Indians, he said, "having an absolute right to that fishery, are entitled to a fair share of the fish produced by the Columbia River system."

The judge also held that Oregon's statehood and the 1918 Columbia Interstate Compact did not impair the treaty right.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error