OCR Text |
Show BPORT OF COMMISSIOXER OR INDIAN AFFAIRS. 35 murder and counterfeiting. The total value of intoxicating liquors seized and destroyed was approximately $140,000, and the. value of . the gambling paraphernalia about $25,000. When the cases initiated by Mr. Johnson were brought to trial, cou-victions were usually obtained; but there was a strong popular senti-ment against having the Statego to the expense of carrying through the several thousand cases which were turned over from the federal to the state courts for trial. Troublesome questions of jurisdiction and procedure complicated matters, and many of the county attorneys refused to prosecute, dismissing not only whislq cases but also those in which theft, robbery and even murder were charged. In many places, however, Mr. Johnson arranged for setting the cases for the current term of court and it is expected that a large number will be brought to trial. The lively and aggressive contests attending the closing days of the federal jurisdiction in Oklahoma and Indian Territory made necessary the expenditure of larger sums of money than the regular appropriation would allow, and the Congress met the need by making an additional appropriation of $3,500 to complete the ye& work. Although the provisions of the federal law prohibiting the intro-duction of liquor into the " Indian-country " no longer apply to the former Indian Territory at large, the State of Oklahoma has a pro-hibitory clause in its constitution which it is believed will provide material protection for the Indians. While all this work was going on within the boundaries of two Territories, and acquiring a particular dramatic interest frrm the fact that it was conducted on a larger scale and met with greater opposition than elsewhere, the Government was by no means unmind-ful of conditions on other reservations, where a corps of special offi-cers have been constantly employed and moved from point to point as fast as confidential information reached .the office that their pres-ence was needed. On the former Nez Per& Reservation in Idhho, intoxicants were being openly introduced and sold in violation of the law, and the special officers were able to accomplish but little pending the deter-mination of the case of George Dick, plaintiff in error, zr. The United States, which involved the question of the constitutionality of one provision in an agreement ratified by the act of August 15, 1894 (28 Stat. L., 326), whereby the Nez Perc6 Indians ceded to the United states" all. the unallotted lands in the reservation except certain tracts. Article 9 of this agreement reads: It is further agreed that the lands by this agreement ceded, those retained . and those allotted to the said Nea Perce Indians, shall be subject for a geriod of twenty-Em years to all the laws of the United States prohibiting the intro-duction of intoxicants into the Indian countl~a, nd that the Nez; Ferce Indian |