The Judge's Warning: Stop Selling Whiskey to Indians
A Port Townsend grand jury was told that federal law treated every Native person as under an Indian agent's charge—and that local liquor sellers were profiting from open violation.
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.
In the District Court of the Third Judicial District of the Territory of Washington, holding term at Port Townsend for Jefferson, Clallam, Island, Kitsap and San Juan counties, a grand jury was impaneled. John B. Allen, U.S. Attorney, appeared, along with S. M. Nolan as foreman of the Territorial grand jury and Albert Briggs as foreman of the United States grand jury. Judge Lewis charged the United States grand jury:
"Gentlemen: Your duty as Grand Jurors on the part of the United States is to inquire as to offenses against the Statutes of the United States committed at any and all places within the Third Judicial District. The United States District Attorney, Mr. John B. Allen, will submit to you any and all matters touching the violation of the Revenue and other laws of which he may be advised. The principal and most important matter, however, to be submitted to you at this term is the statute relative to our intercourse with Indians and Indian tribes. As early as 1832, during the administration of that great patriot and hero Andrew Jackson, it was declared a part of the policy of our Government that, so far as possible, Indians should be prevented from getting spirituous liquors, and to secure that end a statute was passed upon that subject July 9, 1832, which, with some amendments, has remained the law to this time. It is enacted that no person shall sell or give to any Indian under the charge of an Indian agent any spirituous liquors or wine. All Indians found within the United States are in charge of an Indian agent; hence all Indians found here, of whatever nation or tribe, are presumed to be in charge of an Indian agent. This traffic with the Indians pays too much profit; it is carried on in many parts of this District in open violation of laws—to secure great profits men will take the chances of detection. It is your duty here to make most diligent inquiry as to this matter, and if you can procure the necessary evidence to warrant indictments of the guilty ones, be put upon trial, and by a rigid enforcement of the law its purpose will be accomplished."
“All Indians found within the United States are in charge of an Indian agent; hence all Indians found here, of whatever nation or tribe, are presumed to be in charge of an Indian agent.”
The charge shows how federal power reached into Port Townsend through courts and Indian agents, treating every Native person as under guardianship. The dispute over who could sell alcohol—and to whom—was part of the larger contest over Indigenous sovereignty and the reach of territorial law that still resonates in tribal-federal relations today.
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