Religion as Peoplehood

This chapter concerns claims to the religious in federal Indian law as part of broader claims made in the register of sovereignty. It follows a number of crucial cases that concerned the shape of treaty-protected rights to fishing, hunting, and gathering off-reservation, notably those in the Great Lakes region and the salmon cases in the Pacific Northwest, rulings that cleared the way for the Makah whale hunt. The chapter argues these cases are not simply about political sovereignty or about the economic value of the treaty rights. They are also about the religious and cultural importance of those sacred practices and how the practices themselves constitute peoplehood. It also signals where protecting religion as peoplehood, under international law and especially under federal Indian law, can have its limits, particularly in the short term.