Canada-United States Law Journal Volume 39 Issue Article 5 January 2014 The Law of Native American Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Outside of Reservation Boundaries in the United States and Canada Guy Charlton Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj Part of the Transnational Law Commons Recommended Citation Guy Charlton, The Law of Native American Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Outside of Reservation Boundaries in the United States and Canada, 39 Can.-U.S. L.J. 69 (2015) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol39/iss/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canada-United States Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE LAW OF NATIVE AMERICAN HUNTING, FISHING AND GATHERING RIGHTS OUTSIDE OF RESERVATION BOUNDARIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Guy Charlton* ABSTRACT: This article examines and compares the law of Native American/Aboriginal hunting, fishing and gathering rights in those areas which are located outside of reserved land area in Canada and the United States. The article argues that despite the differing statutory and constitutional traditions, both states’ law and policy towards the Native American continues to reflect the underlying premises of the colonial project. While indigenous peoples have significant use rights, national, state and provincial power remains the primary locus of regulatory authority. However, there may be opportunities to extend use and co-management rights to allow tribes to be involved in land use and environmental regulatory decisions. Ultimately, changes in the doctrine of indigenous usufructuary rights over time suggests that constitutional innovation, not simply incremental judicial decision-making, will be necessary if the two nations wish to address fully some of the historic grievances of indigenous people. Charlton – The Law of Native American Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights 69 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 70 II. The American Doctrine of Off-Reservation Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights ................................................................................................. 73 A. The Source of the Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights ....................... 75 1. Historical Occupation and Use ............................................................. 75 2. Federal Power ....................................................................................... 79 B. General Principles of Interpretation .......................................................... 81 1. Reserved Rights Doctrine ..................................................................... 81 2. Fiduciary Obligations and the Protective Canons of Statutory and Treaty Construction .................................................................................. 83 3. Specific Interpretive Assumptions in Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights cases ............................................................................. 92 C. Territory Where Rights Are Exercised ..................................................... 93 1. Aboriginal Title .................................................................................... 93 2. Ceded Territory or Territory Set Aside for Tribes for Tribal Use Outside of Reservation Boundaries .......................................................... 95 D. Who May Exercise Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights ..................... 99 E. Determining the Content and the Scope of Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights .......................................................................................... 100 F. Regulation and Limitations of the Right ................................................. 104 1. Cultural Limitations, Traditional Uses and the Moderate Living Doctrine .................................................................................................. 104 2. State Jurisdiction over Natural Resource Use and Exercise of Right ....................................................................................................... 109 G. Extinguishment ....................................................................................... 113 1. Aboriginal Title .................................................................................. 113 2. Treaty Rights or Statutory Agreements .............................................. 114 III. The Canadian Doctrine of Off-Reserve Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights ................................................................................................................ 117 A. The Source of the Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights ..................... 121 1. Historical Occupation and Use ........................................................... 121 2. Reconciliation with Common Law..................................................... 126 B. General Principles of Interpretation ........................................................ 131 1. The Purposive Approach .................................................................... 131 2. Honour of the Crown ......................................................................... 134 3. Specific Interpretive Assumptions in Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights cases ........................................................................... 136 C. Who May Exercise The Rights ............................................................... 137 D. Territory Where Rights Are Exercised ................................................... 139 E. Determining the Content and the Scope of Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Rights .......................................................................................... 142 1. Aboriginal Title .................................................................................. 142 2. Aboriginal Rights ............................................................................... 149 3. Treaty Rights ...................................................................................... 153 70 CANADA-UNITED STATES LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 39, 2015] F. Regulation and Limitations of the Right ................................................. 158 1. Justification Analysis ......................................................................... 158 2. The Cultural Limitation on Exploitation of Usufructuary Rights ...... 160 3. Extinguishment .................................................................................. 164 IV. Conclusion: Politics, Law and History in American and Canadian Indigenous Usufructuary Rights ....................................................................... 167 I. INTRODUCTION This article examines and compares the law of Native American/Aboriginal hunting, fishing and gathering rights in those areas which are located outside of reserved land area in Canada and the United States. This law allows these groups to exploit the resources in a manner which is not available or is illegal for non- tribal members. Emphasizing the historical basis of this legal doctrine, the article argues that despite the differing statutory and constitutional traditions both states’ law and policy towards the Native American continue to reflect the underlying premises of the colonial project. While indigenous peoples have significant use rights, national, state and provincial power remains the primary locus of regulatory authority. Nevertheless given the continued pressure on natural resources, there may be opportunities to extend use and co-management rights to include legal claims for tribes to be involved in land use and environmental regulatory decisions in order to protect usufructuary interests. Law was crucial to the colonialist enterprise. Indeed, from the European perspective, colonialism was a legal enterprise. “The archives of Western colonialism . ,” Robert A. Williams writes, “ . reveal a profusion of laws that were drafted, enacted, obeyed, ignored, or defied in pursuit of Europe’s will to empire.”1 Law “gave the Anglophone a way of seeing aboriginal peoples both as organized groups and as individuals” and it was a key mechanism by which the colonialists dealt with the occupants of newly settled territories.2 It was one of the means by which the settlers structured their relationships with indigenous peoples and established the basic legal instruments by which governmental authority and colonial property rights were established. Later as the colonial state established jurisdictional hegemony, the law was used to control, pacify, amalgamate and govern indigenous populations.3 The extension of law created new cultural and legal boundaries between the colonizer and the aboriginal communities and outlined the basis of a relationship between the aboriginal groups and the colonizers under the law of the colonizing power. This relationship has been complex and has varied across time and place but in all cases aboriginals were not simply passive victims. Rather, they were * Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong. 1 ROBERT A. WILLIAMS, JR., THE AMERICAN INDIAN IN WESTERN LEGAL THOUGHT 6 (1990). 2 PAUL G. MCHUGH, ABORIGINAL SOCIETIES AND THE COMMON LAW: A HISTORY OF SOVEREIGNTY, STATUS AND SELF-DETERMINATION 4 (Oxford University Press 2004). 3 John L. Comaroff, Colonialism, Culture, and the Law: