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Show XLVI REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. cattle are again pastured on Indian lands. The herders are,in almost every instance, irresponsible persons, against whom the penalty fixed by sections 2147 and 2148 of the United States Revised Statntes is in-effectual. A strong effort was made in March last, by the Montana legislature, to obtain the consent of the department to open np a oattle trail from Helena to the eastern markets throngh the Crow Reservation, and a va-riety of specious argnmenta mere advanced in favor of the plm; but, on the gronnd of its being a direct violation of treaty provisions which would jnstJy endanger the present peaceful relations exiating between the government and the grow Indians, the application waa of course promptly refused. The owners of the cattle which have thus been driven through that reserve, so far as they mnld be ascertained, have been prosecuted under ~ection2 117 of the Revised Statutes. The attention of this office has often been called to the encroachments of miners and other intruders 011 the Ute Reservation in Colorado and the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. Numerous.and extensivemines have been opened on both reservations, egpeciall~th e latter, and eTery eftort df this office to remove the miners has thus far proved ineffectual. The question of intrusion on the San C&rlos. Reservation mnst remain .unsettled until the western boundary of the same is resurveyed, and an appropriation to cover the expense of sucli survey should be made with-out delay. Extensive depredations have been committed on timber standing on Indian reservations in Miehigm, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, but these depredations have been checked to a oonsiderable extent by the arrest and prosecution of the parties engaged or interested in such timber speculations. LAW FOR INDIAN RESERVATIONS. In the last three annual reports of thisoffiee urgent appeals have been made for the enactment of laws for Indian reservations. The following bill mas introduced at the last Oongress and received the approbationof the Judiciary Committees in both Houses, and was favorably reported on: Be it enacted by the Ssnats end Home of Representatives of ths United Stdm of America in Congrea~ assendld, That the President may prescribe soitnble polioe regulation8 for the government of the various Indian reservations, and provide for the enforcement thereof. SEO. 2. That the provisions of the laws of the respective Statea and Territories in which are laoatad Indian remmatiom, relatingto the crimes of murder, man8laughter, arson, rape, bnrglnry, and rohheq shallbe deemed and taken to he the law, and in force within s u ~rhes ervations ; andthe distriot oourts of theunited States within nnd for the renpectiva diatriots in vhioh such reservatiom may he looated in any State, and the Territorial conrts of the respeotive Territorieain whioh suoh mervntionsmsy be.lacated, shall have original j?Mction over #such offenses which m'y be corn-mittad within such reservations. In respect to all that portion of th;e Indian Territory not set apart and oooopied by the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chiokww, and Seminole Indian tribes, the proviaions |
