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Show ', I I I XI1 'REPORT OF THE COMMISBIONER OF INDIAN APi'AIRL rent Soar. On the 18th September, 1882, Robert Poisal, a half-breed Arapaho belonging to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation in the In, dian Territory, while driving home with his niece, Mrs. Mea.gher, from the Sacred Heart Mission, in the Pottawatomie counlrj, in that Terri. tory, whither they had been to placesomeof their childre11 atschool, was shot down and killed by Johnson Foster, a Creek Indian. Thisoccurred at a point about 45 miles east of the agency, on the Shawneetown road, a.bout 20 miles from Kioliapoo Village, on the Pottawl~tolnieR eservation, a tract ot'uountry specinlly set apart 4y act of Congress for the Potta. wetomies slid Shawnees. There was no apparentlnotive ior themurder other than plu~~derT. he luurderer was arrested by the Semil~oleL ight Horse and brought ~ n t oth o Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, whence, in order to esca.pa the summary vengeanue tlirea,tened b~ the Arapahoes, he was t~iroed over to the military authorities at Fort Iieno for safe keeping. The facts beiug reported to this Department, and an examination of the treaties with t,he Cheyeune and Arapaho Indians seemingly favoring the view that the United States court had jurisdiction of the crime com-mitted, the honorable Attorne~Oeneral,u pon the ,recommendation of the Department, iustrueted the United States attorney for the western district of Arkansas to arranie for the immedi.dte removal of the prisoner to Port Smith, and for his trial there before the United States court. Section 2145 of the Revised Statutes provides- Except as to crimes the -punishment of wbich is expressly providedforin this title, the general laws of the United States as to the puniahmentof crimes committed in any .plnce within the sole and exclusive jorindiction of the United States, except ,he District of Columbia, shall extend t i t h e Indian counlry. Seetiou 2146 enaets- The preceding section shall not be cdnstrued to extend to orimes oommnilte6 by one Irdiau against the person wproperg of another Ilrdian, nor to any Indian committing nop offense in the Indian oountry who ha8 been punished by the local law of the tribe, or to any ease where by treaty stipulations the exclusive jnrisdiction over auoh offensea is or may be wenred to the Indian tribes respectively. (See '.An act to oor-rect ermrsltnd supply omissions in the Revised Stacutss of the United States," sp-proved February 18, 1875; 18 Stat., p. 316.) The United States attorney for the western district of Arkansas, hav- .ing expressed the opinion that under section 2166, above quoted, the United States court was without jurisdiction in the premises, and that the trial bud pnnishment of the offender was a maiter properly belong-ing to the Indians themselves, the honorable AttornerGeneraI was inclined to think it wo~~bled a useless expense to transpi~rth e prisoner to Fort Smith, but invited a further expression of the views of this De-partment btafore issuing definite instructions to the dimtrict attorney. On the 4th November last this office replied through the Departmeut, and referred to the second clause of the treaties with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians (15 Stat., 593; Id., G55), reading as follows- If bad men among the whites, or among other people subjeot to ttlre anthority of the United State., s h ~ lclo mmit any wrong npon the person or property of the Iudians, |