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The danger of misinterpretation is especially great for a tribe 

 such as Warm Springs whose treaty fishing and hunting rights have 

 been carefully defined by numerous federal court decisions over the 

 years. In our view, it would be a mistake to try to codify these 

 court rulings in national Indian fish and wildlife legislation. 



Now, let me discuss what the legislation should do. First and 

 foremost, the legislation should assist the tribes in exercising 

 their fish and wildlife management authority. Current federal 

 assistance to tribal governments to carry out this most important 

 function of their sovereign authority is inadequate. This 

 inadequacy is so great that it brings into question whether the 

 United States Government is fulfilling its solemn trust 

 responsibility to protect Indian rights and resources. 



The circumstances of the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes 

 illustrate the problem. Our tribe faces a huge and complex task 

 in trying to protect our off-reservation treaty rights as well as 

 manage our on-reservation fish and wildlife resources. The 640,000 

 acres of the Warm Springs Reservation is almost entirely tribal 

 trust land and contains priceless habitat for deer, elk, eagles, 

 salmon, and numerous other fish and wildlife species. Managing 

 just the fish and wildlife resources located on our reservation is 

 an overwhelming task. However, in addition to our on-reservation 

 resources, our forefathers reserved off-reservation fishing, 

 hunting and food gathering rights in our 18 55 treaty with the 



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