administration of law. As the Indians are taken out of their wild life they leave behind them the force attaching to the distinctive tribal condition. The chiefs inevitably lose their power over Indians in proportion as the latter come in contact with the Government or with white settlers, until their government becomes, in most cases, u mere form, without power of coercion and restraint. Their authority is founded only on "the consent of the governed," and only as they pander to the whims or vices of the young men of the tribe can they gain such consent. As a police restraint upon lawlessness they are of no avail, being themselves subject to the control of the worst element in the tribe. An Indian murdering another Indian is accountable only to the law of retaliation. The State authorities do not concern themselves in punishing the murders among Indians, even when such murder is committed under the shadow of their criminal courts.
I submit, for the consideration of the honorable Secretary, whether it is not necessary that crimes among Indians shall be defined by United States law, and made punishable before United States courts. or whether it may not be practicable to, invest magisterial powers in agents and superintendents, by which they may summon a jury among the Indians or other persons residing at the agencies by authority of law, before whom any serious offense against law and order may be tried. Such a court would he the beginning of administration of justice, out of the workings of which would gradually grow a code of laws, which would cover these cases arising in the Indian country, and come to be enforced by a police among themselves.
At the same time, ample provision should be made for the prosecution of citizens who attempt to encroach upon the rights of Indians, or to debauch them by the sale of intoxicating liquors. The employment of detectives, through the Department of Justice, has worked satisfactorily, so far as the limited appropriation of last year has allowed. The difficulty of securing conviction of parties who are known to be engaged in selling whisky to Indians, makes the prosecution, when attempted by the agent alone, expensive and more frequently unsuccessful. In order to induce information and secure efficiency in these prosecutions, I recommend that such legislation be procured as will insure to the informant all fines arising from conviction under the law.
REFUSAL OF INDIANS TO REMAIN ON RESERVATIONS.
The fifth hinderance, the persistent refusal of a portion of some of the tribes to remain upon their reservation according to treaty has been mainly experienced with five tribes, viz, the Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches. A portion of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes are identified with the Sioux in their depredations. The remainder are living on a reservation in the Indian Territory.
SIOUX.
The actual depredation committed by the Sioux have been comparatively few, but a portion of the tribe have assumed a hostile attitude toward the Government by attacking the surveying expedition on the Northern Pacific Railroad. According to the best information of this. office, the greater number of Indians engaged in these hostilities were a band of Northern Sioux, who have hitherto declined to treat with the Government and with them a large re-enforcement from different agencies along the Missouri River, as also from Spotted Tail's and Red
