The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Herrera v. Wyoming confirmed what tribal leaders and the United States intended when they signed the treaties. This decision repudiated a decades-old ruling in another case and reaffirmed that tribal hunting rights reserved in Indian treaties did not expire when a territory became a state. As members of the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama tribes, we consider the freedom to hunt, fish, and gather our First Foods as an ancient right guaranteed by our Creator and then secured in our treaties with the U.S.—treaties that were promised to remain in effect “as long as the grass grows and the waters flow.”
—Jaime Pinkham, CRITFC Executive Director