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Show V REPORT OF THE CO&fMISSIOFER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. lege sbould longer be retained. In my opinion no ardent spirits should be introduced into the Indian country under any pretense whatever, nor their sale permitted within tirenty miles of an Indian reservation; but under existing laws on the subject, it is a notorious fact that ale, beer, and preparations of alcoholic stimulants, disguised as medicines, are sold at military posts to soldiers and civilians; and although the post traders are not permitted to sell it directly to the Indians, yet it is an easy matter for the Indians to obtain it from the soldiers and civil-ians to whom it is furnished. US General Order So. 24, dated February 22, 1881, issued from the Eea(lquarters of the Army, by order of the President, the sale of intox-icating Zipwra. at military posts and statious was forbidden; but it. is olaimed that lager beer and other malt liquors arenot considered "intox-icating liquors,"and thereforeare not prohibited in the aforesaid order. ne~l c ep ost traders under the supervision of the War Department eon-eider themselves authorized to buy and sell malt liquors in such quau-tities as may suit the demands of their trade. As an illustration of the working of this constrnetion of t,he President's order, it has been stated that at one of the military posts, mhere the troops number less than than 200, 72,000 pints of lager beer were consumed in three weeks, wllieh is about 17 pints per day for each man. I am also informed that most of the lager beer which is sold at these military posts is made ex-j~ resdyfo r that particular trade, and contains from 25 to 40 percent. of proof spirits, inst,ead of the 6 to12 per cent. contained in theordiuarylager beer. I am therefore constrained to believe that until the right to dis-pose of liquor of anJ kind, under whatever name or subterfuge its sale or introduction on or near an Indian reservation may be attempted, is forbidden bylaw, its sad and demoralizing effects among the Indians will oontinue to exist. Almost every mail brings complaints, from both whites and Indians, of wrongs and outrages committed by drunken Indians. The follon,. ing extract from the letter of an Indian agent may serve as a sample of ma.uy others: SIR: I an8 much nleased to observe s. renort that you were determined to snare no effort to suppress the whisky trsdo among the Indians. Now, whether in this item of naWR there is any truth or not, one thinr ia certain, that no more potelit obstsiole ex-ists. to the DivilGtltion of theIndia= than the ourso of intoxioat& - drinks. I hare ulo1.c to contend with in this directionthanin all otbe~-8. Undslar its baleful influence tho men are robbed of their laud snd hard earnings, the wooten are demoralized and rendered worse rhan brutes, and all are kept iu the vilest of degradation, and mucll of t!:e effort to lift by education and improvement these otherwise peaceful and law-illriding people from their normal condition of barbarism ia frittered away throt~gh rho hel~rtlesao upidity of the dealer in this poisonous stoff. But bad aa it iehere, I think among the Indians of tllefarwaat and Northwest it is infinitely worse. I was recently informed by a gentleman who has beeasome time at, Stn,oding Rock Agenay, that the intluenoo of this poisonous stuff was fearful; and at all tho military posts among the Iudians, while the Indian traderwss prohibited from selling liquors at my rate, the poat trader at the militnrypost in the immediate |