Tribal Rights to Wildlife

Abstract

In addition to the federal and state governments are the many Indian tribes, which fit uneasily into the governance systems of the United States.1 Tribes possess distinct governance powers of their own, not derived from the federal or state governments. They also possess extensive property rights in land and natural resources, often arising from legal sources quite different from rights held by non-Indians. The powers of tribes over their reservations are reasonably well known. Less familiar and more contentious are the vested rights they possess to take fish and game at places outside their reservations. These off-reservation rights and their implications for resource management have given rise to recurrent legal disputes dealing with the precise scope of the tribal rights and the complex ways tribal powers fit together with state powers, both on and off reservations and over tribal members as well as others.