OCR Text |
Show XIV REPORT OF THE COMMIBSIONEg OF INDIAN AFFAIRS As a matter of fact, however, some few agreements of the character mentioned have been entered into by certain Indian tribes on their own responsibility, from which the Indians are drawing more or less pecu-niary benefit. These agreements, however, hare not received the ap-proval of the Department for the reasons above stated. It is very de. sirable that Congress should put this muuh vexed question upon a proper basis, so that Indian lands not necessary for other purposes may be made a sonrce of income to the Indians under such rules and regu-lations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. CRIMES AND OFFENSES. A law is badly wanted for the punishment of crimes aud oflenses amongst Indians themselves. In my last annual report I referred to this subject at considerable length, and poiuted out the embarrassment occasioned this Departmeut by reason of the excepting cla~isein the United States Statutes (section 2146), which remits to tribal usages and customs the punishment of crin~esa nd oflenses committed between the Indians themselves. Outside the five civilized tribes in theIndian Ter-ritory, who hare their ow11 legislat~uresc, ourts, and judicial machinery, and amo~lgswt hom life and property are as secure as they are in the Stateu, the Indian is not amenable to any law for injuries committed on one of hisown race in the Indian country. The result is th:~t the most brutal and unprovoked murders are committed, and the murderer goes unwhipt of justice." A notable instance of this is the case of L4 Crow Dog," who killed the celebrated Chief 'i Spotted Tail" on the Sioux reservation, and who was tried and co~lvicted before the first district court of Dakota, sitting as a United States court, which held that under the peculiar provisions of the treaty of 1868 and the agreement of 1877, with the Sio~ixIn dians, ! it had jurisdictionof the oflense, notwithstanding tlie general provision in the statutes. Upon petition for writ of habeas corpus and certio- 1 rari, the United States Supreme Oourt held that the statntory excep-tion was not repealed by the provisions of the treaties, and that the first district court of Dakota was without jurisdiction to find or try the indictment against the prisoner; that the conviction and sentence were void, and that his imprisonment waR illegal.* The consequence is that Crow Dog is at large upon tlle reservation unpunished. Another notable case was that of Johnson Foster, a Creek Indian, who committed a cold-blooded murder upon Robert Poisal, a civilized Arapaho, in the Shawnee country in the Indian Territory. The facts of this case were fully set out in my last report aud need not he reca-pitulated. Here also there was no legal remedy at hand, but the Indi-ans saved the Government all further trouble in the matter by finally shooting the murderer down like n wild beast, not., however, nnt.il he *Ex-parte Crow Dog 109, U. S. Reports, 556. |