Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/44

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Findings and Recommendations
17

restricted Indians on tribal lands and restricted allotments, and cases of this character come under the unquestioned jurisdiction of the United States courts. Laws respecting the sale of liquor to Indians and some other special matters have been passed, and again jurisdiction is clear. For the great body of other crimes and misdemeanors the situation is highly unsatisfactory. To speak broadly and generally, there is neither substantive nor adjective law covering these crimes and misdemeanors when committed by restricted Indians on lands upon which the United States still maintains restrictions. Some states have attempted to assume this jurisdiction and to apply state law, but they have generally withdrawn when their efforts are challenged. Except for the eight major crimes, law enforcement among the Indians on the reservations is in the hands of the Secretary of the Interior as a part of his duties in the administration of Indian affairs.

In some jurisdictions, Courts of Indian Offenses have been established, presided over by Indian judges, whose small salaries are specifically appropriated by Congress, thus giving congressional sanction to the system. The judges are administratively appointed. They operate under very general regulations propounded by the Indian Service. In a large measure they determine both law and fact. Their decisions are subject to administrative but not judicial review.

The Indian Service has been bitterly assailed for maintaining these courts. The survey staff, however, believes that they are well adapted to the needs of primitive Indians remote from organized white communities, and that on the whole they work well. They are more open to criticism for lenity than for severity. The penalties they impose are generally slight and are very humanely administered.

If criticism is to be directed against the Indian Service in this matter of crimes and misdemeanors, it should be directed primarily toward the fact that apparently it has not formulated a constructive program for bringing Indians under the state law and the state courts where the Indians are sufficiently advanced to warrant the application of this law to them and where the white communities in the neighborhood of the Indians are sufficiently developed to afford the requisite judicial administration.