| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. t57 Stats., 260). I also set forth my reasons for believing that the court erred in its decision. Since that time the United States circuit court of appeals at San Francisco has rendered a decision in the case of Eells et aL u. Ross (64 Fed. Rep., 417), wbich sustains my view as to the authority @f tbeQov-ernment over Indian allottees and shows how the court would hold if it were possible to get before it a case of liquor selling to such allottees; but as these cases are of a criminal character no appeal can be taken by the Government. For this reason the office made strenuous efforts to secure the passage of the bill (H. R. 6657) wbich was introduced in the last Congress by Mr. Meiklejohn, and whiohwas as follows: That any person who shall sell, give sway, dispose of, exchange, or barter any mat, spirituous, or vinous liquor, including beer, ale, and wine, or any ardent or other intoxioating liquor of any kind whatsoever, or any essence, extract, bitter6 preparation, compound, composition, or any article whatsoever, under any name, l&bel, or brand which produces intoxication, to any Indian to whom allotment of land has been made while the title to the same shall be held in trust by the Govern-ment, or to any Indian a ward of the Government under charge of any I n d i a super-inteadent or a-gent., or any Indian, including mixed bloods, over whom the Govern-ment, through its departments, exeroises guardianship, and any person who shall introduce, or attempt to introduce, sngmalt, spirituous, or vinous liquor, including beer, sle. all& wine, or any axdent or mtoxieating liquor of any kindwhatsoeverinto th-e 1- ndiA countrv":, s ha l l i e nunished bv" im~.ris& mentf or n i t more t h m two T"ears. , or by a, fine of not leas than one hundred dollars for the first offense andnot less than twohundred dollars for eaoh offense thereafter, or by both fine and impriaonment,in the discretion of the court: Prouided, hotueuer, That &hen the pnnlahmint shall behy h e the person convicted shall be committed until fine and oosts are paid, the informers to have and receive one-half of all fines paid and colleoted. Bnt it shell be a sufficient defense to any charge of introduoing, or attemptiug to introduce, ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquors into the Indian oountry that the aots charzed were done under anthoritv. in writing, from the War Depubent. or my offieer'duly authorized thereunto by the War ~ i ~ s r t r n e n t . SEG. 2. That so much of the act of twentg-third day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, as is inconsistent with the provisions of this act is hereby repealed. The bill wad passed by the House of Representatives in the last hours of the last session, but too late to receive the consideration of the Senate, and consequently did notbecome a law. It is my purpose, however, on the assembling of the next Congress to submit the matter to the Department in a special report, with a view to having the bill again introduced and, if possible, passed into law. In his annual report, dated August 28,1894, D.M. Wisdom, the agent for the Union Agency, Muscogee, Ind. T., has the following to say relative to the manufacture and sale of an intoxicating beverage in the Indian Territory called "Choctaw beer," via: The sale of Choctaw beer, a drink compounded of barley, hops, tobacco, fish berrieq and a small amount of alcohol, is manufactured without stlnt in many portions of thia agency, especially in the mining communities. Many miner8 insist that it is essential to their health, owing to the bad water usually found in mining camps, and they aver that they use it rather as s tooic or medioine t,han as a, bever-age, and this idea, that it is B proper tonio, ie fostered and encouraged by some |
