Seufert Bros. v. United States Ex Rel. Confederated Tribes & Bands
Headline: Court upholds Yakima Indians’ treaty fishing rights on the Columbia River’s south bank, allowing them to fish and cure fish there despite private land claims and corporate interference.
Holding: The Court affirmed that the treaty’s reservation of fishing rights lets the Yakima tribes use their usual Columbia River fishing places on the south bank and barred the corporation’s interference.
- Affirms tribal rights to fish at customary Columbia River sites on the south bank.
- Prevents companies or landowners from blocking long-established tribal fishing uses.
- Makes buyers responsible to recognize obvious, long-standing tribal fishing practices on purchased land.
Summary
Background
The United States, as trustee and guardian for the Yakima Indians, sued a private corporation in federal court to stop interference with fishing at a specific stretch of the Columbia River’s south bank in Wasco County, Oregon. The Yakima treaty of June 9, 1855, reserved to the tribes the exclusive right to fish in streams running through their reservation and the right “of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with citizens.” The treaty was one of a group negotiated to free territory for settlement. The District Court found that Yakima members and neighboring southern-tribe members had long crossed the river, intermarried, habitually used the south-bank fishing sites, and built temporary houses there to dry and cure fish.
Reasoning
The central question was whether those treaty words allowed Yakima Indians, whose reserved lands lay north of the river, to fish on customary south-bank locations. The Court applied prior guidance that Indian treaties must be construed as the tribes understood them. Because the historical evidence showed longstanding, open, shared use by Indians from both sides and by white men, the Court rejected a narrow, technical reading that would confine fishing to lands within the reservation and held that the treaty secured the tribes’ customary south-bank fishing rights.
Real world impact
By affirming the District Court’s injunction, the ruling lets Yakima and related tribes continue to use the described south-bank fishing places and to erect temporary curing houses there. Private buyers and businesses have notice that treaty-reserved customary uses may limit exclusive possession where habitual use was obvious. The ruling is grounded in demonstrated historical practice and applies where habitual, open use is proven.
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