Ward v. Race Horse.

About Ward v. Race Horse

Ward v. Race Horse, 163 U.S. 504 (1896), is a United States Supreme Court case argued on March 11–12, 1896, and decided on May 25, 1896. The case concerned the right of the Bannock people to hunt on unoccupied land per an 1868 treaty with the U.S. The case was decided in favor of the state of Wyoming and set a precedent that state laws had precedence over Indian treaties, massively checking tribal sovereignty and giving the Supreme Court the right to determine Congress’s implicit intentions when signing Indian Treaties. The case influenced many twentieth century cases dealing with hunting rights, conservation, and state’s rights and the precedent it set wasn’t overturned until 2019 in Herrera v. Wyoming.