Enforcing Liquor Laws on the Reservation
General Alvord moves to protect immigrants while curbing the illegal sale of spirits to Indigenous populations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
General Alvord is making arrangements to send small bodies of soldiers out to protect immigration, and, if practicable, to arrest the murderers of the train near Fort Boise in 1860. We are told they can be identified so as to leave no room for doubt as to the real murderers. An effort will also be made to enforce the laws of the United States on the Indian Reservation, on the subject of selling spirituous liquors to the Indians. This is a righteous move and we trust will be successful. While we have much to complain of the barbarous deeds perpetrated upon the whites by these savages, we cannot ignore the truth, that our worst trouble with them has frequently arisen from the treatment they have received from unprincipled or desperate white men.
“We cannot ignore the truth, that our worst trouble with them has frequently arisen from the treatment they have received from unprincipled or desperate white men.”
This reflects the complex and often patronizing civic attitudes of 1862, acknowledging white culpability in violence while still using the dehumanizing rhetoric common to the era. The attempt to control alcohol distribution on reservations remains a significant point of historical contention and policy.
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