The Treaty of 1855 reserved to the Tribe an enormous piece of land. It wasn’t as large as the area the Tribe initially occupied but it was an enormous Reservation. Due to pressures from settlers to enter that Reservation and settle as well as to mine gold, in the 1860’s there was a subsequent treaty that resulted in the current Reservation of about 750,000 acres of land. That treaty did not take away any of these off-reservation hunting, fishing, grazing, and gathering rights (“usual and accustomed areas”) but eroded the land base of the Nez Perce Tribe.

In the 1890’s there was an agreement between the Nez Perce Tribe and the United States (Dawes Act). Each tribal family agreed to take 160 acres of land and the rest of the Reservation was open to settlement by non-Indians. That has resulted in an enormous erosion of the Tribe’s land base. Currently, of that 750,000 acres the Tribe owns about 20% of that land. Again, that agreement despite taking away more of the land did not take away any of the Tribe’s hunting, fishing, grazing and gathering rights.

The United States has consistently recognized that those rights are key to Nez Perce culture, Nez Perce religion, and really the sovereignty of the Tribe. Those are key components of what make the Nez Perce people the Nez Perce people.

Other court cases have continued to erode Tribal sovereignty. The Supreme Court has stated that tribes don’t have any criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians. Recent Supreme Court cases even question the jurisdiction of the tribe to regulate its land, specifically when these lands are held by non-Indians. The tribe does its best given the current legal climate to assert its sovereignty and protect its land and people. The facts are right now that the Supreme Court and other courts of this nation have not looked favorably upon assertions of tribal sovereignty.