Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-09-22

III siiS paper Win regard
to the Indian and the liquor cues.
ton. So many inquiries and re-
quests for reprint have been made
that it has been decided to do So
The reprint with furthur comment
follows!
Recently a raid was pulled off on
nearby beer parlor, the proprie-
tor being charged with the sale of
intoxicants to Indians. Without 90
ing into the merits of the case, the
question has arisen as to who and
what is an Indian.
BY congressional act, the Indian
has been declared an American citi-
zen, thereby securing all the bene-
fits accruing from citizenship. He
votes at all elections, national or
local, many pay taxes and accord
lngly vote if a bond issue is at stake.
In other words, the Indian is an ac-
tive participant in our body polite.
Indirectly, by his vote, he helps
make our laws, the very laws that
govern states and nation today and
yet laws of ancient vintage state
that Poor Lo is an Indian and
therefore barred from certain per-
quisites of citizenship that his
white brethren enjoy.
The American Indian of today
occupies a rather anolomous posi-
ton. He is citizen, and then he is
not-he votes and pays taxes and
yet he is denied privileges enjoyed
by his white neighbors.
Holding no brief for the LIQUOR
interests, am curious to learn why
an Indian, citizen and a taxpayer,
moulder of our laws is denied that
which is really his.
Some ethnologists, psychologists
and other men of scholarly attain
ments at times say and contend
that the Indian race is particularly
susceptible to alcoholic influence
other words they argue that the In
dian as race is so constructed
physically that he is unable to ham
die or drink alcoholic beverages and
exist. In my estimation, this is lust
so much talk, regardless of the sa-
pient and wise discourses put forth
by our scholarly and sincere profess
sors of learning whose only know
ledge of the Indian probably has
been obtained by seeing a carved
Indian statue in front of a cigar
store along the Bowery or some
other similar places.
am strongly in favor of liquor
on our reservation, Browning. the
local agency has an estimated pop-
ulation of 300. Dame Rumor has it.
but am in no position to prove it,
that there are approximately 20
bootlegging joints here or to be
plain, bootlegger for every 40
men, women and children in our
town. This is no criticism of the
prohibition force-they will arrest an
individual today and his next door
neighbor opens tomorrow. The ma
tional government tried to enforce
prohibition throughout the nation
and failed. Alcoholic liquors are
back and are here to stay because
enforcement of laws derogatory to
free citizenship refuse to work out
regardless of all that is said and
done, and yet, we still have the In
dian problem. Shall he have his Ii
quor as any other free citizen or is
he still an outcast to be catered to
only when vote is at stake, liquor
being denied him simply because
he is an Indian and not an Italian,
Jap, Filipino or a negro. The
question resolves itself into but one
equation, racial discrimination and
a self assumed superiority on the
part of the governing race or races.
THE government tried to enforce
prohibition throughout the nation
and failed-they have tried and are
still trying to enforce prohibition
among the Indians and it also has
proven failure, not through lack
of zeal among the enforcement Off
GERS but because they are fighting
for hopeless cause. The Indian
like the white man in prohibition
times, desiring a drink or a bottle,
is going to get it regardless of cost
or consequences and without one
result, he pays a fancy price for IL
quor that no man, be he white,
black, yellow or red would ordinari-
ly buy.
Prohibition is failure regardless
of race as has been amply demon
started throughout the land and the
money spent in an attempt to en-
force prohibition is just so much
money wasted. The Indian Office
John Collier, himself. before the
subcommittee of the Committee on
Appropriations, 18th Congress, page
go, of the report, says in brief, 1.-The
present condition is bad" in my
judgment 80 it would be better to
have no prohihitinn in the rnixed