The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-11-21
MUST PROHIBIT LIQUOR
D DECLARES :. j BALL|NGER
Says All Indian Treaties Must Be Lived
up to Until Nullified or
"'' Abrogated.
COURTS FINAL INTERPRETERS
Admit. Doubt a. to Expulsion Of
Beer or the Right to Close
up Breweries.

Washington. Nov. 21.-Secretary
Ballinger of the interior department
has no explanation to make in ad.
dition to the statement given out by
the department few days ago for
publication. All we are trying to
d." said Secretary Ballinger,
through the departments instruc-
tons to Indian Commissioner
Valentine, is to enforce the law as it
appears to be, according to the old
treaties with the Indians, which ex-
clude liquor from the Indian
country.
"The Indian country in Mime
sofa, as one will see by examlna-
ton of the maps, covers probably
80 per cent of the state. 1t is not
the province of the department to
interpret these treaties nor to ex-
pound the law. We are required
to enforce the law as we find it.
These treaties, or so much of them
as affect the Indian country of
Minnesota, are directly opposed
to the introduction of liquor into
the Indian country. The orders
of the department to the Indian
officials have been merely that the
law shall be enforced without
discrimination as to person, prop
erty or territory, within the zones
covered by these treaties.
I'VE hear many complaints from
people within the Indian country
but, our replies are that the law
speaks for itself and the courts must
be the final interpreters of the mean
ing of these various laws"
In other words. Secretary Balling-
er holds that while there are many
differences in the wording of these
old Indian treaties and those who
have read the documents and are
familiar with the facts are inclined
to doubt whether some of these
treaties are not obsolete and others
so vague in their terms as to make
it a matter of doubt what the courts
would say in regard to them.
Mr.. Ballinger believes that the
duty of the administrative officers
is to enforce the law as it is found,
leaving the question of Interpretation
and explanation of the meaning of
the laws to the courts.
The department, apparently, is
we'll aware of the questions raised,
whether some of the treaties have
not been annulled by congressional
action although perhaps not
specifically so, but the officials prefer
to 60 on with what they regard as
their duty of enforcing the laws and
leaving it for the courts to determine
the rights of all parties concerned.
It is admitted at the department
that one of the most interesting ques-
tons involved under some of the
treaties is whether beer is excluded
under the term "other liquors" used
in connection with spirits and
whether an established brewery can
be closed under the treaty provisions
against the introduction of liquor
into the Indian country.'s
Some doubt is expressed at the de.
partment as to whether the law can
be inforced in the southern portion
of Minnesota in which the city of
Minneapolis is situated, for the rea-
son that the act of Feb. 1868. passed
subsequently to warfare which the
See.See-Toan and Wah-Pay-Toan
bands of Sioux conducted against
the whites, declared to be abrogated
and annulled, the treaties with the
Indians so far as they purported to