Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation v. Mike Vulles and Vladimir Vulles

This battle between the Indians and the white settlers began in 1964 when the settlers padlocked a gate across a road, traversing the settlers’ property, that the Indians used to reach their tribal lands, and the Indians responded by shooting off the locks. The Indians are members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation (“Tribes”), appellants; and the settlers are the Vulleses, appellees.

The United States, acting as trustee for the Confederated Tribes, sued to enjoin the Vulleses from obstructing the right of way and to recover lost revenue previously earned by leasing tribal grazing lands. After the court had denied the United States’ request for a preliminary injunction, the Tribes intervened as plaintiffs. Judgment was entered in part favorably to the United States and the Tribes and in part favorably to the Vulleses. The Tribes alone appeal from that portion of a judgment denying them the use, as individual members of the Tribes, of a right of way across the Vulles land for the purposes of hunting, berry hunting, or recreation on tribal lands lying beyond the Vulles property.

In 1855, by the Treaty of Hell Gate ( 12 Stat. 975 ), the Tribes…