Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1905-04-27
Indian reservation on the Missouri

BY this was meant that Indians
who had taken their allotments aud
who could now procure liquor from
bootleggers or at licensed saloons,
would, while under the influence of
liquor, and while surrounded by a
number of their brethren, engage in
drunken carousals in the smaller
towns near the homes of the Indians
and that the only way in which the
whites could maintain order and
protect their homes would be to
shoot down the drunken redmen.
1t is a we'll known fact that a
drunken Indian is crazy Indian.
When under the influence of liquor
they revert to the savage condition
of their forefathers, and are ready
for any deyiltry, from attempting to
run" the border towns, to shooting
down other Indians or even whites
against whom they have real or
imaginary grievances.
Those familiar with the Indian
character, and who for twenty or
thirty years have lived in proximity
to the Indians of South Dakota,
declare that drunkenness will now
utterly demoralize the Indians, and
that as result the Indians have
taken allotments being able to
secure all the liquor they desire,
serious crimes, such as murders and
murderous assaults, will show
rapid and marked increase among
the Indian population of the state.
The worst feature of the matter
is that gangs of drunken Indians
passing to and from their homes on
allotments which are scattered
through the coded portion of the
Rosebud Indian reservation, may
make life miserable for the white
settlers who are at present engaged
in establishing homes on their newly
acquired possessions in that part of
the state.
The wives and children of the
settlers, and even the settlers them
selves, might not be safe from
attacks from Indians who are tenn
porary demands as the result of
indulging in the white mans FIRE
water"
The same may be the case in
other thinly settled counties border
ing on the reservations, and for
their own protection and the pro-
lection of their property, settlers
living near Indians who have taken
their allotments will find it neces-
sary to arm themselves with the
determination to protect them
selves and property, come what may,
even to the extent of opening fire
upon the drunken Indians who
attempt to modest them.
Liquor selling Joints situated at
points remote from town, but ada
cent TO the Indian reservations, and
which ere operated for the most
part by law-less mixed blood
Indians the scum of the Indian
population of the state will thrive
because of the declaration that it is
no violation of The federal statutes
to sell liquor to the Indians who
have taken their allotments.
During the last few years as the
result of the vigorous warfare waged
on these gangs by the government
officials of South Dakota, the mem
bers had been scattered far and
wide, some placed in the penitentiary
and others driven from the state.
Those in a position to do so will
now return and engage in their old
occupations and will materially aid
in the complete Generalization of
the Indians Without the slightest
doubt shooting ARRAYS will become
and crimes viii run ram
pant among allotment Indians who
permit their desire for liquor to get
the better Of them.
Another feature will be the bur,
den in the way of additional taxa
tion which viii be imposed upon the