United States v. Shoshone Tribe of Indians
United States Supreme Court case
United States v. Shoshone Tribe of Indians of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, 304 U.S. 111 (1938), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that mineral rights on a reservation belonged to the tribe, not the federal government.
Background
By the Treaty of July 2, 1863 the United States set apart for the Shoshone Tribe of Indians of the Wind River Reservation, a reservation of 44,672,000 acres (18,078,000 ha) located in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. By the Treaty of July 3, 1868, the tribe ceded this reservation to the United States. The US agreed that 3,054,182 acres (1,235,984 ha) definitely described acres called the "district of country" would be set aside for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshone Indians. The US also agreed that no persons would be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in that territory. The Shoshone Tribe subsequently made the reservation their permanent home.
At the time the 1868 Treaty was made, the tribe consisted of full-blood Indians who were unable to read, write, or speak English. The reservation contained valuable mineral deposits of gold, oil, coal, and gypsum as well as over 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) of timber. In 1904, the Shoshones and Arapahoes ceded to the US 1,480,000 acres (600,000 ha) to be held by it in trust for the sale of timber, timber lands, and for the making of leases.
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