United States v. Winans - Significance, Court Sides With The Yakimas
fishing wheel indian appellant
Appellant
United States
Appellee
A commercial fishing company
Appellant's Claim
That the fishing company, by putting in place a device known as a fishing wheel and by other forceful means, had deprived the Yakima Indian tribe of its rights to fish in its traditional spot on the Columbia River as per a treaty signed with the United States government during the nineteenth century.
Chief Lawyer for Appellant
Henry M. Hoyt, U.S. Solicitor General
Chief Lawyer for Appellee
Charles H. Carey
Justices for the Court
David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, William Rufus Day, Melville Weston Fuller, John Marshall Harlan I, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph McKenna (writing for the Court), Rufus Wheeler Peckham
Justices Dissenting
Edward Douglass White
Place
Washington, D.C.
Date of Decision
15 May 1906
Decision
That the treaty takes precedent over state law, that the fishing wheel did displace the Native Americans from their rightful fishing spot. Remanded to the circuit court to determine the method of reconciling Native Americans' rights to fish in the area in question with the respondents' state-granted right to operate a fishing wheel.
Related Cases
- Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. Thompson, WL 797196 (7th Cir. [Wis.] 1998).
Further Readings
- Moquin, Wayne, with Charles Van Doren. Great Documents in American Indian History. Praeger Publishers, 1973.
- Washington Law Review, November 1975, p. 61.
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