OCR Text |
Show 44 COMMISSIONER INDTAN AFFAIRS. to their lands, it is a communal title, no individual owning any sep-arate tract,and that, considering the reasons which underlie the au-thority of Congress to prohibit the introduction of liquor into the Indian country, it seems plain that this authority is sufficiently com-prehensive to enable Congress to apply the prohibition to the lands ' - of the Pueblos. The question of citizenship was left open, the court saying that citizenship is not in itself an obstacle to the exercise by Congress of its powers to enact laws for the benefit and protection of tribal Indians as a dependent people. Our work in Montana has developed some resentment and numer-ous obstacles, but we are accomplishing much good and shall increase our activities there. Considerable work was undertaken during the year to protect the Indians residing in the State of New York from intoxicants. An o5cer has been thereabouts for several months. Whether these In-dians come within the classes enumerated within the general liquor law is an important question and is now pending in a case before the Attorney General. Conditions in other States inhabited by Indians have consider-ably improved in some instances and have remained about the same in others. The cooperation of State and Redera1 authorities in the srial and punishment of offenders is as essential in this work as special o5cers are to detect them. Likewise it is essential that we have both the moral and active support of the citizens residing in Indian communities, and I am pleased to say that as a result of the manner of our activities and the sentiment which has recently been aroused the evil results of the liquor traffic among the Indian is fast becoming a matter of grave concern to white citizens of the country, both for the reason that they are properly interested in the uplift of the red man and for the further reason that impoverishment of the Indian means that he will ultimately become a charge upon the taxpayers of the several States. The results of our labors show that during the past fiscal year we were successful in bringing about 1,823 arrests and 941 convictions; 247,592 pints of liquor were seized &d destroyed under the provisionrr of section 2140 ofthe Revised Statutes. Our operations to protect the Inilians from intoxicants extends from Florida to New York in the East, from Washington to Cali-fornia in the West, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. In this work we endeavor to look after the welfare of over 300,000 In-dians scattered through more than 20 States of the Union. Many complaints are received during the course of the year, which, by reason of the inadequacy of the liquor suppression force, due to the limited appropriation, can not be reached at iill. |