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Show long as game may he found thereon, and so long as peace subaists among the whiten and Indians on the borders of the hunting districts." In July, 1868, an act had been passed erecting a temporary government for the Territory of Wyoming (15 Stst., 178), and in this eat it waa provided as follows: "That nothing in this aot shall be conatrued to impair the rights of persons or p.ro.per t.y now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such right shall remain ~ n e x t i n ~ n i a h e dt%re~at y between the United st& an; such lndi&m" Wyoming was ndmitted into the Union on July 10,1890 (26 Stat., 222). Section 1 of that act provides as follows: "That the State of Wyoming is hereby deolmed to be a State of the United States of America. and is herebvdeolared admitted into theunion onan eons1 fooatin-e with the original States in all respects whatever; and that the constitution which the people of Wyoming have formed for themselves he, and the aame is hereby, accepted, iatffied, and confirmed? The aot contains no exception or reservation in favor of or for the benefit of Indisns. The legislature of Wyoming, an Jnly 20,1895 (Lews of Wyoming, 1895, o. 98, p. 225), passed an act regulating the killing of game within the State. In October, 1895, the district sttorney of Uinta County, State of Wyoming, filed an information againat the appellee (Raoe Horse) for having killed in that county aeven elk in violation of the law of the State. He was taken into custody by the aheriE, and it was to obtain a releaaefrom imprisonment anthorized by a commitment issued under these proceedings that the writ of haheaa corpus wes sued out. The following facts are unqneatiansd: lat, that the elk were killed in Uinta Caonty, Wyoming, at a point about one hundred miles from the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, which is situated in the State of Idaho:. 2d,. that the killing WsB in violation of the laws of tho Stateof Wyuming; Sd, rhllt the place whore the killing took place was unac-rupied puhiiu ialld of the United Statea, in the aense that tile United Statea naa the ownerof the fee of tile land; 4th, thut the piaco wirsre tltu elk wem killed waa is a mounrainuz~nr egion aonm dintance removed liom settlements, hut wt s usvd by the settlers BR a rango f o p csttle, and W B ~wi thin ulaction and ~chnoid ietrieta of the State of ~yoming. Mr. Jnstioe White. after atatin.e, the case. delivered the ominion of the court: It is wholly immaterial, for the purpose of the legd issue here presented, to con-sider whether the place where the elk were killed is in the vicinsge of white settle-ments. It is also equally irrelevant to ascertain haw fm the land was used for a cattle range, ainco the soie question whioh the Ccl6W presents is whether the treaty made by the United States with the Bannock Indiana gave them the rightto exeroise the hunting privilege, therein referred to, within the limits of the State of Wyoming in violatlan of its laws. If it gave ~ n o hri ght, the mere fact that the State had oreated achool districts or eleotian district6 and had provided for psstorage on the lands, could no more eBosciously operste to destroy the fight of the Indian to hunt on the land8 than could the passage of the game law. If, on the other hand, the te- of the tresty did not refer to landnde within 8 State, which were subject to the legislative power of the State, then it ia equally olear that, although the lands were not in school and election districts and were not near settlements, the right con-ferred on the Indiana by the treaty would he of no avail to justify a violation of the State law. The power of a State to control and regulate the taking of game csn not he qneatloned. (Creer a. Connecticut, 161 U. S., 519.) The text of article 4 of the treaty, relied on as giving the right to kill game within the State of Wyoming, in violstion of its laws, is as follows: "But they ahaU have the right to hunt on the nnoccopied lands of the United States, so long as game may he fonnd thereon, and so long aa peace subsists among the whites and Indiana on the hordersof the hunting diatrieta." |
