The United States Attorney for Washington then filed a suit to enforce the treaty rights of the tribe. The trial court held that the property rights of the Winans allowed them to exclude others from the property, including the Indigenous people. In 1905, the United States Supreme Court reversed that decision by holding that the tribe had reserved fishing rights when they ceded the property to the United States. Since the tribes had the right to fish reserved in the treaties, the federal government and subsequent owners had no greater property rights than were granted by the treaties.