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4 plains of Montana and Wyoming.” Ibid. This system came with no restrictions; the Yakamas enjoyed “free and open access to trade networks in order to maintain their system of trade and exchange.” Id., at 1263. They traveled to Oregon and maybe even to California to trade “fir trees, lava rocks, horses, and various species of salmon.” Id., at 1262–1263. This extensive travel “was necessary to obtain goods that were otherwise unavailable to [the Yakamas] but important for sustenance and religious purposes.” Id., at 1262. Indeed, “far-reaching travel was an intrinsic ingredient in virtually every aspect of Yakama culture.” Id., at 1238. Travel for purposes of trade was so important to the “Yakamas’ way of life that they could not have performed and functioned as a distinct culture… without extensive travel.” Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted).

Everyone understood that the treaty would protect the Yakamas’ preexisting right to take goods to and from market freely throughout their traditional trading area. “At the treaty negotiations, a primary concern of the Indians was that they have freedom to move about to… trade.” Id., at 1264. Isaac Stevens, the Governor of the Washington Territory, specifically promised the Yakamas that they would “ ‘be allowed to go on the roads to take [their] things to market.’ ” Id., at 1244 (emphasis deleted). Governor Stevens called this the “ ‘same libert[y]’ ” to travel with goods free of restriction “ ‘outside the reservation’ ” that the Tribe would enjoy within the new reservation’s boundaries. Ibid. Indeed, the U. S. representatives’ “statements regarding the Yakama’s use of the public highways to take their goods to market clearly and without ambiguity promised the Yakamas the use of public highways without restriction for future trading endeavors.” Id., at 1265. Before the treaty, then, the Yakamas traveled extensively without paying taxes to bring goods to and from market, and the record suggests that the