Cite as: 508 U. S. 679 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
in its brief. Moreover, it is inconsistent with evidence in the record that the Corps in fact believed that jurisdiction over non-Indian hunting and fishing on water project lands is a matter of state law.16 See App. 288, 284. Thus, we find this argument undeveloped. Under these circumstances, we decline to defer to the Government's litigating position.
IV
"[T]reaty rights with respect to reservation lands must be read in light of the subsequent alienation of those lands." Montana, 450 U. S., at 561. In this case, the United States took former trust lands pursuant to the Flood Control Act, which mandated that all water project lands be open for the general public's use and recreational enjoyment. The Cheyenne River Act reserved some of the Tribe's original treaty rights in the former trust lands (including the right to hunt and fish) but not the right to exert regulatory control. These statutes clearly abrogated the Tribe's "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of these tribal lands, 15 Stat. 636, and thereby deprived the Tribe of the power to license non-Indian use of the lands. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case
16 The dissent simply assumes that the phrase "local laws" in 36 CFR § 327.8 (1992) includes "tribal" laws. Post, at 702-703. However, an Army Corps regulation outlining the procedures for evaluating Department of the Army water use permit applications indicates that the Army Corps, in fact, distinguishes between the terms "tribal" and "local." See 33 CFR § 320.4(j)(2) (1992) ("[t]he primary responsibility for determining zoning and land use matters rests with state, local and tribal governments") (emphasis added). Furthermore, we are bewildered that the dissent cites § 327.1(f) for the proposition that "the regulations themselves provide that tribal rights prevail." Post, at 702-703. Section 327.1(f) provides that the regulations in part 327 apply "to the extent that [they] are not inconsistent with . . . treaties and Federal laws and regulations." This is simply to say that the regulations do not purport to abrogate treaty rights—not a startling proposition. The regulation says nothing about whether the Flood Control Act or Cheyenne River Act has already terminated those rights.
697
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