96 GAME COMMISSIONS AND WARDENS. 



Although the legal status of the Indian on or off the reservation has 

 thus been material 1}^ elucidated by recent decisions of the courts, and 

 State officers have been given authority to call sheriffs and peace officers 

 to their assistance and to raise a posse when necessary, the practical 

 difficulty of controlling Indians in some of the Western States still 

 continues. When, as sometimes happens, bands of Indians leave 

 their reservations on hunting trips into adjoining counties or States, 

 the warden service is practically powerless to prevent their depreda- 

 tions and frequently it becomes necessary to call out troops to return 

 the Indians to their reservations. During the past ten years Indian 

 depredations have been most frequent in Colorado, Minnesota, New 

 Mexico, and W3"oming. In order to show the character of these 

 depredations, mention ma}" be made of some of the more important 

 recent raids. 



Reference has already been made to the raid which occurred in 

 Colorado in Kio Blanco County in 1902. (See p. 50.) Another notable 

 incursion of the same kind was that of the White River Utes, who invaded 

 the western part of Routt County, Colo., on Little Snake River, in 

 October, 1897. According to the report of the commission which was 

 appointed to investigate this affair, nearly 2<)0 Indians had left their 

 reservation for a hunting trip in Colorado. At one point, where 27 

 Indians were encamped, 40 or 50 fresh deer hides and 2 fresh carcasses 

 of deer were found V)v a party of 10 wardens and 2 unarmed citizens. 

 The wardens endeavored unsuccessfully to induce the Indians to sub- 

 mit to arrest or to leave the State. In the conflict which followed 

 two Indians were killed and a squaw was wounded. " 



In Minnesota complications arose about 1897 or 1898 through 

 Indians leaving their reservation and killing deer after the close of the 

 season for sale to Indian traders.^ 



In Montana in 1899 Crees and half-breeds from Canada engaged in 

 the wholesale slaughter of deer along the Missouri River. These 

 Indians have no reservation, and wander over the country gaining a 

 living as best the}' can, and destroy large quantities of game. More 

 than once they have been rounded up by troops, taken to the border, 

 and formally expelled from the United States, only to drift back 

 across the line in a short time. They kill at any time of the year and 

 use dogs to run game, in violation of law.*" 



In New Mexico in 1905 a number of Indians from Isleta made a 

 hunting trip to the Datil Mountains, in the western part of Socorro 

 County. This incursion not only threatened the existence of the deer 

 and antelope in that region, but, it was feared, would bring on serious 

 trouble with the settlers. 



«D. C. Beaman in Forest and Stream, L, p. 27, Jan. 8, 1898. 



''S. F. Fullerton in Forest and Stream, LI, p. 509, Dec. 24, 1898. 



cForest and Stream, LIII, p. 501, Dec. 23, 1899; LV, p. 421, Dec. 1, 1900. . 



