Russ

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

This case raises the questions of the exact boundary of the Round Valley Indian Reservation (Reservation) in Mendocino County, California, and whether the State of California has jurisdiction to regulate hunting upon that Reservation.

On April 15, 1973, plaintiffs Russ and Whipple, two enrolled members of the Covelo Indian Community of the Reservation, shot a deer on land they claim is part of the Reservation. The land in question is located within the boundary of the Reservation defined by Congress in 1873, Act of March 3, 1873, 17 Stat. 633 (Act of 1873), but is outside the area selected and retained for the Indians pursuant to the Act of October 1, 1890, 26 Stat. 658 (Act of 1890). The plaintiffs were apprehended and the deer confiscated by defendant Wilkins of the California Department of Fish and Game, who denies that the locus of the shooting was within the present Reservation and asserts jurisdiction in any event under California law.

Plaintiffs Russ and Whipple brought this action against Wilkins and the Director of the California Department of Fish and Game seeking $100 damages for the value of the confiscated deer and declaratory and injunctive…