| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN APFAIRS. 61 I agency, but that it was reported that roving partiesof other Indians had killed game outside of the reservation;-also that the Indians reported that white men were continually going on hunting expeditions through the country adjacent to their reservation, and killing game merely for the pleasure of l~nnting. Reports from other Indian agents in that country sustained this charge, the whites claiming they had as good right as the Indians to kill game; and the State officers, in some instances, stating that they did not feel justified in prosecuting white men for violating State game laws, while the Indians were allowed to hunt. Subsequently more complaints were received from Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana that parties of Indians were continually leaving their reservations with passes from their agents to make social and friendly visits to other reservations; that en route they slaughtered game in large quantities merely for the sake of killing and.for the hides, par-ticularly in the country adjacent to the Yellowstone Natioual Park and the Shoshone Reservation, Wyo., and that if such depredations were allowed to continue it would probably rcsult in a serious conflict between the white settlers and the Indians. In view of the above complaints, the o£lice, on May 22,1894, addressed a letter to the Indian agents in 1dah.0, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and &he Dakotas, instructing them to call together in council the Indians of their respective agencies and again put before them the iustructions contained in office circular of November 1, 1889, and to notify them that the restrictions as to hunting contained in that circular must be strictly complied with; also that should they obtain passes ostensibly for making friendly visits to other reservations and then engagein hunt-ing while en route, their passes would be recalled by this office and they would not be allowed to leave their reservation again. The circular referred toreads as follows: The UNITED STATES IXDIAN AGENT^: Frequent complaints have been made to this Department that Indians are in the habit oC leaving t.heir reservations for the purpose of hunting; that they slaughter game in large quantities in violation of the laws of the State or Territory in which they reside, and that in many instances large numbers of wild animals are killed simply for their hides. In some oases Indians, by treaty stipulations, have the guaranteed right to hunt, npon specified conditions, outside their existing reservations. The Secretary of the Interior has deoided that the privilege of hunting under suoh treaty provisions ia the right to merely kill suoh game as may be neoesasry to supply the needa of the Indians, and that the sleoghter of wild animals in vest numbers for the hides only and the abandonment oE the caroasses without attempting to make use of them, is as much a violation of the treaty as an absolute prohibition on the part of the United Ststes againat the exercise of suoh privilege would be. This fact should he impressed upon the minds of the Indians who have suoh treaty rights, and they will he given to understand that the wanton destruction of game will not be per-mitted. And those not having the reserved treaty privileges of hunting outside of their existing resefvation should be warned against leaving their reservation for hunting, ss they are liable to arrest and proseoution for violation of the laws of the State or Territory in which offenses may he committed. |
