OCR Text |
Show REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 59 Stuart, of the United States court in the Indian Territory, and also to the United States a,ttorneys for the western district of Arkansas and the eastern district of Texas, and that they all agreed in the opinioi~t hat section 2139 of the Revised Statutes does not make it an offense for any person to manufacture intoxicating liquors within the Indian Territory, and that the term LLintroduced"d oes not mean the manufacture of illtoxieating liquors within the Indian country, but the actual bringing of intoxicating l iq~~ofrrso m without the Indian Territory to within the Incliau Territory, aud that such see,ms to be the general legal meaning of tlie term '1 introducedn as construed in that section of the country; also that he had within the week just prior to the date of his letter again conferred with Judge Stuart abont the matter, and there was no ques-tion in his lni~ldh ut that this officew as wrong inits contention that by the term introduced" the statute prohibits the manufacture as well as tlie actual bringingof intoxicating liquors within the Indian country. At the time Agent Wisdom's report was received there was pending in Congress a bill! which subsequently became a law (28 Stats., 693), which contained a provision (ibid., 697) imposing heavy penalties on allyone who shall-manufacture, sell, give away, or in any manner, or by any means furnish to anyone, either for himself or another, any vinous, malt, or fermented lirpors, or ally other intoxicating drink8 of any kind whatsoever, whether med~cntedo r not, or who shall carry, or in my mnnqer have carried, into said Territory any such liquorsor drinks. After its passage no further action on Agent Wisdom's report was needed except to notify him of the provisions of the new law. INDIAN DEPREDATION CLAIMS. At the date of my last annual report there were 8,005 Indian depre-dation claims of record in this office, of which number 4,364 claims were on file. Since then 2 new claims have been fled, making the total nmnber 8,007. During the past year 87 claims have been reported to the Court of Clai~us hy this office. In 56 claims the papers on file mere tranamitted to the court, 4 were reported as having been pre-viously transmitted to Congress, 4 as having been returned to claim-ants and attorneys, 1 as having been sent to an Indian agent, and miscellaneous information was given pertaining to 22. The number of claims disposed of during the year, 65, deducted from the total number of claims on file, 4,366, leaves 4,301 claims still in this office to be trans-ferred to the court in the maliner provided in the act of March 3,1891, conferring upon the Court of Claims jurisdiction and authority to investigate and finally adjudicate Indian depredation claims. The act of Congress approved August 23, 1894 (28 Stats., 476), appropriated $175,000 for the payment of certain judgments of the Court of Claims in Indian depredation claims rendered in pursuance of said act of March 3,1891, and $200,000 add~tionawl as appropriated by an act approved March 2,1895 (28 Stats., 869), for the payment of |