South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679, 15 (1993)

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Cite as: 508 U. S. 679 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

Cheyenne River Act preserve certain limited land-use rights belonging to the Tribe. It could be argued that by reserving these rights, Congress preserved the right to regulate use of the land by non-Indians. Thus, the Court of Appeals treated the mineral, grazing, and timber rights retained by the Tribe under the Cheyenne River Act as evidence that the taking "was not a simple conveyance of land and all attendant interests in the land," 949 F. 2d, at 993, and the court accordingly concluded that Congress had not abrogated the Tribe's pre-existing regulatory authority. We disagree. Congress' explicit reservation of certain rights in the taken area does not operate as an implicit reservation of all former rights.

Our decision in United States v. Dion, 476 U. S. 734 (1986), supports this conclusion. In Dion, we considered whether an Indian who takes an eagle on tribal land violates the Bald Eagle Protection Act.14 We demanded "clear evidence that Congress actually considered the conflict between its intended action on the one hand and Indian treaty rights on the other, and chose to resolve that conflict by abrogating the treaty." Id., at 740. The Bald Eagle Protection Act contains an exemption allowing the Secretary of the Interior to permit the taking of an eagle "for the religious purposes of Indian tribes" and for other narrow purposes found to be compatible with the goal of eagle preservation. 16 U. S. C. § 668a. We found this exemption "difficult to explain except as a reflection of an understanding that the statute otherwise bans the taking of eagles by Indians." 476 U. S., at 740. Likewise, we cannot explain § X of the Cheyenne River Act and § 4 of the Flood Control Act except as indications that Congress sought to divest the Tribe of its right to "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the taken area. When Congress reserves limited rights to a tribe or its mem-14 The Bald Eagle Protection Act makes it a federal crime to "take, possess, sell, purchase, [or] barter . . . any bald eagle . . . or any golden eagle." 16 U. S. C. § 668(a).

693

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