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Show 74 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. article 1 of the said treaty of 1868, which provides, among other things, as follows: If had men among the whites, or any other people subject to the authority of the United Staten, shdl commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, theunited States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commis-sioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to esusethe offenders to be arrested and punished socarding to the laws of the United States, and s,lalso reim-hnrse the injured person forthe 1088 sustained. If, as seems to me to be the case under the decisions of the Supreme Court, the laws of the State of Wyoming under which these arrests were made, and fines, confiscations, and imprisonments imposed,are void for the purpose, the acts of the authorities of Wyoming in this regard are to beconstrued in the same light as if they had been the acts of per-sons not holding any official relationto the government of the Scate, and as wrongs committed upon the person and property of the Indians by the people subject to the j&isdiction of the United States, and therefore this Government might be held responsible under the treaty. It appears from reports that the Indians not only suffered arrests, fines, loss of the.ir property, and imprisonment, but that one at least of them lost his life at the hands of these white people, alleged officers of the State of Wyoming; another was wounded and one child mas lost, probably perished in the forests. The killing of this Indian can not be held to be anything less than murder, for it appears from the most reliable accounts received in this oftice that the so-called deputy sheriffs had, in anticipation of an attempt to escape, agreed between them to shoot their prisoners, although they had been arrested and charged with simply a misdemeanor punishable by a small fine under the laws of the State. The Indians say that when they made their break for liberty they were led to believe by the action of their ca,ptors that they were preparing to kill them, and it seemsfrom the newspaper clipping above quoted from the New Pork Evening Post, that the apprehensions of the Indians were not withont some ground, for the officer in charge of the deputies stated that he considered that he had a right to kill an Indian who had been arrested for an offense the maximum penalty for which is n fine of $10 and three months' imprison-ment if such Indian attempted to escape, even though he had not been tried. Recommendation was made in my report of Angust 17,1895, that the entire matter be referred to the Department of Justice with the request that a thorough and exhaustive investigation be made into the affair with the view to taking soch action as might be deemed expedient and lawful for the punishment of the parties guilty of wronging the Indians. The case was submitted to the Attorney-General of the United States, who stated, August 23 last, that he had telegraphed the United States attorney for Wyoining, direeting him to apply fdr writs of habeas corpus in case any Indians were confined at Evanston by the State authorit,ies; and that he was not aware of any law under which |
