118 



COLORADO. 



In the morning the Indians, when called upon 

 to identify the culprit, pointed out Jackson as 

 the murderer of Young Johnson, and offered no 

 objections to the release of the rest of the 

 freighters, who were attended on their way 

 toward Saguache by a guard of soldiers. Their 

 whole resentment was centered on young Jack- 

 son. According to the Indians' story, the act 

 of the young man was a wanton and cold- 

 blooded murder, committed without any provo- 

 cation. Their version was generally credited 

 by the military and the Government officers, 

 while the people, the press, and the State offi- 

 cials of Colorado accepted without qualification 

 the story of the freighters. The Indians, after 

 a long parley and much hesitation, agreed or 

 feigned to agree to the proposition that Jack- 

 son, the accused, should be taken to Gunnison 

 City, for incarceration and trial by their 

 friends, Kline, Hoyt, and Holmes, an Indian 

 going with them. In the evening the three 

 whites returned and reported that, when only 

 a few miles from the ranch, they were sur- 

 prised by a large body of Indians in ambush, 

 among whom were some white men. They 

 seized upon Jackson and disappeared, and he 

 was never heard of again. The report went 

 abroad in the State that the young man, who 

 was thought to have acted only in self-defense, 

 had been put to torture. The popular excite- 

 ment was intense. The citizens threatened to 

 march in and precipitate the Government into 

 a conflict with the Indians, feeling that the 

 Government had been dilatory in removing the 

 Indians from the reservations and too indulgent 

 toward them. The soldiers and Government 

 agents on the reservation resented the attitude 

 of the Colorado citizens and authorities, feeling 

 that their lives were jeopardized by the rash- 

 ness of persons who themselves encountered no 

 danger. The 500 Indians on this reservation, 

 armed as they were with the most perfect mod- 

 ern rifles, would have been able to annihilate 

 the 150 soldiers posted there. A warrant was 

 issued by a State court for the arrest of Berry, on 

 the charge of being an accessory to the murder 

 of Jackson, and others were taken out against 

 Kline, Holmes, Hoyt, and Meacham. A corre- 

 spondence was carried on between Governor 

 Pitkin and the Interior Department with refer- 

 ence to the question of whether the reservation 

 was within the criminal jurisdiction of the 

 State. The Government officers conceded that 

 the accused parties were amenable to the State 

 laws, but warned the Governor of the danger 

 of removing Berry and Meacham off the reser- 

 vation at that time. A sheriff entered the res- 

 ervation and arrested Berry at the agency; 

 but the latter, upon being taken first to the can- 

 tonment at his request, managed to escape in 

 the night-time from the side of the sleeping 

 officer, and spent several days in visiting the 

 various Indian camps, counseling peace and pa- 

 tience, and persuading them to consent to his 

 temporary absence for the purpose of meeting 

 the charges brought against him. Meanwhile 



Governor Pitkin had given directions that a 

 body of militia should accompany a sheriff's 

 posse into the reservation for the purpose of 

 capturing Berry. In the order the Governor 

 said that, if the Ute Indians attempted resistance 

 to the process, they would be swept away, and 

 further, that if sufficient force and ammunition 

 could not be procured in Gunnison, it should 

 be furnished from Denver, and that the force 

 should be either wholly or partly mounted, and 

 well supplied with ammunition. In the mean 

 time an officer of the United States court had 

 arrived ; and Berry, after quieting and reassur- 

 ing the Indians, expressed his willingness to go 

 in his custody to be examined in the court, 

 whichever it was, which had jurisdiction of 

 the matter. Captain Kline had been arrested 

 and confined in j ail at Gunnison. General Pope, 

 in a letter, instructed the officers of the army 

 that the military have no authority to exercise 

 in such a matter, nor jurisdiction of any kind 

 over the Indians or their reservation, which 

 are under the charge and control of the agents 

 of the Indian Bureau, and the military are not 

 empowered to take any action except on the de- 

 mand and under the direction of the Indian agent. 

 Agent Berry declined to call upon the military 

 for assistance. On October 19th Governor 

 Pitkin received an answer to interrogatories 

 sent to the Interior Department, saying that, 

 if Agent Berry were arrested upon criminal 

 process duly served by the State's officers, the 

 United States troops could not interfere, but 

 that if the militia made their entry upon the 

 reservation without process, the Federal troops 

 may be called upon to eject them. General 

 Pope sent a dispatch to the Governor on the 

 20th, in which he stated that he had forbidden 

 the troops to prevent the arrest, upon receiving 

 the opinion of the Attorney-General of the 

 United States, that Agent Berry and his sub- 

 ordinates are amenable to the State law for acts 

 committed upon the reservation. While admit- 

 ting the jurisdiction of the State within the 

 limits of the Indian reservation over the agent, 

 the Attorney-General reserved his opinion as 

 to whether the Indians also were subject to 

 criminal arrest by the State authorities. Agent 

 Berry, on October 19th, submitted to arrest by 

 the United States Marshal, the Indians consent- 

 ing to his absence upon promise of his return 

 in a fortnight. Upon his arrest Governor Pit- 

 kin ordered that the posse, which was on the 

 way to the reservation, should be recalled. 

 Meacham also delivered himself into custody ; 

 and Berry, Meacham, and Hoyt were taken to 

 Denver. 



In the case of the United States vs. Berry et 

 al., in the United States District Court of Colo- 

 rado, Judge McCrary, the late Secretary of War, 

 decided that the murder by Jackson took place 

 within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United 

 States, and that the claim of the State of Col- 

 orado for a transfer of the case to the jurisdic- 

 tion of its courts had no warrant in law. One 

 of the obligations imposed upon the United 



