United States v. Forty-Three Gallons of Whiskey

delivered the opinion of the court.

By the treaty between the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians and the United States, concluded on the 2d of October, 1863, those Indians ceded to the United States their right, title, and interest to certain lands owned and claimed by. them in the State of Minnesota, and the Territory of Dakota. 13 Stat. 661 . The seventh article of the treaty

“ Sec. 20. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall sell, exchange, barter, or dispose of any spirituous liquors or wino to any Indian under the charge of any Indian superintendent or Jndian agent appointed.by the United States, or shall introduce or attempt to introduce any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, such person, on conviction thereof before the proper District or Circuit Court of -the United States, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding two years, and shall be fined not more than $300: Provided, however, That it shall be a sufficient defence to any charge of introducing or attempting to introduce liquor into the Indian country if it be proved to be done by order of the War Department, or any officer duly authorized thereunto by the War Department. And if aiiy superintendent of Indian affairs; Indian agent, or sub-agent, or commanding officer of a military post, has reason to suspect, or is informed that any white person or Indian is about to introduce or has introduced any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, in violation of the provisions of this section, it shall be lawful for such superintendent, sub-agent, or commanding officer to cause the boats,

stores, packages, wagons, sleds, and other places of deposit of such person to be searched'; and if any such liquor is found therein, the same, together with the boats, teams, wagons, and sleds used in conveying the same, and also the goods, packages, and peltries of such person, shall be seized and delivered to the proper officer, and shall be proceeded against by libel in the proper court, and forfeited one-half to the informer and thevother half to the use of the United States ; and if such person be a trader, his license shall be revoked and his bonds put in suit. And it shall, moreover, be the duty for any person in the service of the United States, or for any Indian, to take and destroy any ardent spirits or wine found in the Indian country, except such as may be introduced therein by the War Department. ' And in all cases arising under this act Indians shall be competent witnesses.”

Under this section the present libel of ■ information was filed in the District Court óf the District of Minnesota, to enforce the forfeiture of certain spirituous liquors, which are particularly described, and other merchandise found with them at the time of seizure. In one of its counts the libel sets forth that Bernard Lariviere, a white person, late of the village of Crookston, county of Polk, and State of Minnesota, did, on the 2d of February, 1874, unlawfully carry and introduce into the country ceded to the United States under the treaty mentioned— namely, into the county of Polk, which is a part of the ceded country — the spirituous liquors described; that such introduction was in violation of the provisions of the 20th section of the act of Congress above quoted; that he owned, and at the time had in his possession with the liquors, a quantity of goods, packages, and peltries, a list of which is contained in a schedule annexed to the libel; that an Indian agent, duly appointed, having reason to suspect, and having been informed, that spirituous liquors had been introduced by Lariviere, caused his stores, packages, and peltries to be searched, and there found the liquors mentioned, which he in consequence seized, together with the other goods. In another count the libel sets forth substantially the same matters, with the' addition that the liquors were introduced into the country ceded with intent to

To this libel Lariviere and one Clovis Guerin appeared as claimants of the goods seized, and demurred to the libel on the ground that the court had. no jurisdiction; that the property was never introduced into the Indian territory, but, as appeared by the libel, was searched and seized in an organized county of the State of Minnesota, and hence that the seizure was without authority of law. The demurrer thus interposed was sustained by the district court, and judgment rendered against the United States, and this judgment was affirmed by the circuit court. The case was then brought to this court, where the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to overrule the demurrer. Several important legal and constitutional questions were raised on the argument here, and it was held that Congress, under its constitutional power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes, may not only prohibit the introduction and sale of spirituous liquors in the Indian country, but extend such prohibition to territory in proximity to that occupied by Indians; that it is competent for the United States, in the exercise of the treaty-making power, to stipulate in a treaty with an Indian tribe that within the territory thereby ceded the laws of the United States, then and, thereafter enacted, prohibiting the introduction and sale of spirituous liquors in Indian country, shall be in full force and effect until otherwise directed by Congress or the President of the United States, and that a stipulation to that effect will operate proprio vigore, and be binding upon the courts, although the ceded territory is situated within an organized county of a State. These conclusions are stated in a very clear and able opinion by Mr. Justice Davis, United States v. 43 Gallons of Whiskey, 93 U. S. 108 .

When the case went back to the district court for trial, and the demurrer was overruled, the claimant Lariviere filed an answer to the libel containing inconsistent defences. He first denied that he ever introduced into the ceded territory the liquors as

The only question for our consideration, as thus seen, is whether Lariviere’s payment of the special internal revenue tax for selling liquors in the collection district embraced by the ceded territory exempted him from the penalties of the act of 1864. We are clear that it did not. Congress never intended to interfere with the operation of the treaty, or to sanction the sale of liquors in any ceded territory where. an express stipulation provides that they shall not be sold. The evils resulting from the use of spirituous liquors are so many and so appalling that the government has, from an early period of our history, labored to prevent their introduction among the Indians. In order more effectually to secure this result, laws prescribing severe penalties have been enacted, and authority has been vested in the Indian agents to arrest traffickers in the prohibited article, and to seize and confiscate their property found with it. It would require very clear expressions in any general legislation to authorize the inference that Congress purposed to depart from its long established policy in regard to a matter of so vital importance to the peace and to the material and moral well-being of these wards of the nation. There is also another consideration. The laws of Congress are always to' be construed so as to conform to the provisions of a treaty, if it be possible to do so without violence to their language. This rule operates with special force where a conflict would lead to the abrogation of astipulation in a treaty making a valuable cession to the United States.

The unauthorized introduction of liquors into the ceded territory constitutes the offence, although if they were not sold or given away, no injurious consequences would follow; but once allow their indiscriminate or general introduction and the law would be evaded without possibility of detection. The intro

The case of the Cherokee Tobacco Tax, 11 Wall. 616 , cannot be treated as authority against the conclusion we have reached. The decision only disposed of that case, as three of the judges

It follows from the views expressed that the' judgment of the' court below must be reversed and a new trial had; and

It is so ordered.