United States v. Oregon

Appellant is the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (“Colville”), a confederation of eleven Indian tribes. In 1989, Colville sought to intervene in the underlying litigation that had begun in 1968 to determine Indian off-reservation fishing rights on the Columbia River and its tributaries. In its intervention petition, Colville contended that six of its constituent tribes retained fishing rights as a result of two 1855 treaties. The motion was opposed by other tribes who feared encroachment on their own treaty fishing rights. After considering voluminous exhibits, stipulations and evidence presented during a three-day court trial, the district court denied Colville’s intervention motion, finding that Colville could not assert treaty fishing rights reserved to its constituent tribes. 787 F.Supp. 1557 . Colville now appeals.

BACKGROUND

The United States initiated the underlying litigation in 1968 on behalf of certain Indian tribes in Oregon and against the State of Oregon to define, at least in part, the Indians’ treaty rights to take fish at “all usual and accustomed places” on the Columbia Riv *483 er and its tributaries. 1 The United States takes no position in…