South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679, 16 (1993)

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694

SOUTH DAKOTA v. BOURLAND

Opinion of the Court

bers, the very presence of such a limited reservation of rights suggests that the Indians would otherwise be treated like the public at large.

III

Respondents and their amici raise several alternative arguments, none of which undercuts our statutory analysis. Respondents argue, for example, that their right to regulate hunting and fishing in the taken area was not abrogated because the $10,644,014 appropriated in the Cheyenne River Act did not include compensation for the Tribe's loss of licensing revenue. This sum, respondents argue, did include payment for, inter alia, the loss of grazing permit revenues and the destruction of wildlife, wild fruit, and other natural resources, as those losses were itemized in the House Report on the Cheyenne River Act. See Brief for Respondents 9 (citing H. R. Rep. No. 2484, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., 4 (1954)). To hold their regulatory authority divested, respondents contend, would imply that Congress breached its duty to compensate the Tribe for all taken resources. The Act itself, however, does not itemize the losses covered by the compensation but rather plainly states that the appropriated funds constitute a "final and complete settlement of all claims, rights, and demands" of the Tribe arising out of the Oahe Dam and Reservoir Project. § II, 68 Stat. 1191. Given the express text of the Act, we will not conclude that the Act reserved to the Tribe the right to regulate hunting and fishing simply because the legislative history does not include an itemized amount for the Tribe's loss of revenue from licensing those activities.

General principles of "inherent sovereignty" also do not enable the Tribe to regulate non-Indian hunting and fishing in the taken area. Although Indian tribes retain inherent authority to punish members who violate tribal law, to regulate tribal membership, and to conduct internal tribal relations, United States v. Wheeler, 435 U. S. 313, 326 (1978), the "exercise of tribal power beyond what is necessary to protect

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