State v. Buchanan

Buchanan (defendant), a member of the Nooksack Tribe, was prosecuted by the State of Washington for hunting and killing an elk out of season in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area. He argued the Treaty of Point Elliott, under which the Nooksack ceded their land to the United States while reserving hunting and fishing rights on open and unclaimed lands, exempted him from state hunting law. The state countered that the treaty rights covered only land within the ceded territory or land the Nooksack traditionally hunted, that the Oak Creek Wildlife Area wasn't open and unclaimed land, and that Washington's admission to statehood had extinguished the treaty rights under the equal-footing doctrine.