Show ODD oon INCIDENTS OF TRIBAL COURTS I l I Cherokee Justice Was Sure I and Swift With i Few Frills CONTROL LAW MACHINERY WHERE LASH WAS USED EFFECTIVELY liVELY Y ON WRONGDOERS Vinta Okla Okia April 9 Prior to the th enactment en of ot the Curtis bill by Con Congress Congress Congress gress each of ot the Five Civilized Tribes had Its Us own legislature and lie Ita own courts and inflicted death de th punishment upon tribal citizens found guilty of Certain certain ertan offenses W P Thompson who I practiced In the Cherokee tribal courts lately read rend before the Oklahoma State Bar nar association a paper giving of ot the old tribal court days Mr Thompson said that the first cir cult Judge who WIO had charge of ot criminal matters flatters In the Cherokee nation was James Drown Brown of ot the district 1 The the fir lit murder case In the Cherokee i country was tried before him the pris oner being defended by Richard Fields a lawyer of repute among the Chero Kees When hen the prisoner was arraigned to Pie id the court asked him If it he was guilty or fir r not guilty The prisoner and said Judge I killed the th man but I had to kill him im to save my own life lite Without further procedure Judge Brown read the law and said to the sheriff Mr Sheriff take this man out and hang bang liin In three days Fields sprang to his feet and pro tested that the th man had not been tried z and that he could c uld not be hanged until Convicted been convicted said Judge Dont he say sa he killed the man and dont the law read that if It a mI kills another he must be hung Dont Don t need no trial Fields s persisted In his protest until th the Judge jud e grew exasperated and said you OU set down and If It you yo f t up hen ben again a ain Ill have you OU put In t I r a c essory Fields appealed to the chief of the i wh j persuaded Judge Brown not to have hae his sentence carried Into execution Looney Riley was judge of ot the Tah district with Jurisdiction in all matters flatters of at petit larceny the punish met for this offense being eg es on the bare back A citizen was for stealing sugar from a warehouse warl house the only evidence against hirr being the fact that he was seen to enter the warehouse with a sack in his J I and during a rain his excuse be bo ing lug that ho he had gone there for tor shelter TIle Te persons who saw him enter the warehouse came to the conclusion that his only purpose was to teal sugar and find reported him to officers of the law The Te jury came In and said It could find no law punishing a man for stealing sugar sagar and refused to convict Judge RUe Riley grew angry and said to the jurors You fellows dont know anything about the law You try to make laws for lor ourselves yourselves j I will Just turn you loose You are not fit to hear hoar any thing whatever I J will go to Canay and nd get a Jury to enforce the law He carried out his hla promise and the man was convicted and sentenced to receive lashes on his bare bick blk Before turning him over to the sheriff for punishment Judge Riley KiM nI to the prisoner You Yot are a pretty looking fellow and you Jou a grown up man got a good wife and child trying to steal sugar and thea the tell me you have twenty bee gums more sweetening than any man I In this country Bvrd AdaIr was waa district judge down near Oak Grove Judge Adair nan 4 prepared the jury list proclaimed the law and set the place for the next court A crowd gathered to see what a court ourt was Nobody lead had filed tiled a suit fn there was no prisoner to be tried Everybody sat fat around until noon lIoon when Judge Adair dair said Boys looks like nobody wants ants to toco do co s Il ary y r courtin today toda so we will go goo I o 0 some sorie neighbors and eat din n 44 Aft 1 r dinner everybody came back backS S n ad d sat around waiting g for something to turn up but there was no case In sight and court was wa adjourned and Ind Judge Adair went home Finally I some body stumbled on a good case and an l a citizen was arrested for stealing j a chicken n nife li ife ie e prisoner and tho judge were clos friends and both liked a dram drum of ot When the prisoner was ar arraigned d ho he recited the fact that he ho hail had been b en on a jamboree and had run out of or I wanted 1 chicken soup awfully bad had You know how It Is yourself judge when youve been drunk oud give almost anything to got get chicken soup J 1 e said e AdaIr oyed eyed the prisoner close ly a moment and said Well Wen Tom I will let you ou off otT easy and give you ou only fifteen lashes e Rogers Rog rs sat in another district The federal government had given the al courts jurisdiction over white men f fr r offences tI A white m man n had olgar zed a gang of horse thieves and had T Tier 1 F Ef r i 1 caught c horse stealing The question of or the courts jurisdiction was raised by b W H Jackson an English Englishman man mm with a Cherokee wife who appeared f fr r tH defendant dd Tha Th white mans con coi federates fc had boon ben tried one lifter after the theother theothEr other and taken outside the cm tied to a hickory tree and d The whipping could be seen from frim a window tear which the judge sat The jury jur found the white whitt man guilty and he was sentenced on the spot Jack ron complained that the court had no right to try tr a white man and launched into a prolonged argument Joe Lynch and t deputy sheriff had taken the lr out and were wore getting ready to carry out the sentence Th Thc judge sat listening to Jacksons speech At the second SP ond or third iash the prisoner yelled with pain whereupon Judge Rogers turned and said Hell Jackson you might as well w U quit your yourI our I speech the boys have already licked him Thus the question of ot jurisdiction was answered There were no stenographers or short hand band reporters In the Cherokee courts in those days the proceedings being b taken down slowly and laboriously In longhand The proceedings were In English but fre frequently frequently frequently It was necessary to translate the testimony of a Cherokee into English and that of a white man into Cherokee It Is a trait of the Indian to togo togo togo go laid Int endless and needless detail In Inthe Inthe Inthe the trial of at Mike Carey Care a charged with murder one of ot the supposed eyewitnesses was a Cherokee named David The defendant the de do deceased deceased ceased and David had been to Tahlequah where they bought a jug of whisky On their way home they drank frequently ol or of orthe the jug Jus and when they reached the spot where the killing occurred all were drunk David was put on the stand Inch by Inch and step by step he related every detail of ot their going to Tahlequah what they did at Tahlequah and everything that happened even the conversation up to the time of the killing The Interpret Interpreting ing and the recording of the testimony in longhand consumed an entire day Just before David seemingly was ready to de do describe describe scribe the killing he told the Judge that he took another drink from the Jug Then happened David Well VeIl Judge I just rolled over and went to sleep and I see the kill killIng killIng killIng Ing Each of the Five Civilized tribes had Jurisdiction of ot Its Us own tribal citizens by blood In Its Us own courts but over no other persons The United States courts had Jurisdiction when one of the principals principals principals pals was wag a citizen of the United States In early days at Tahlequah a Cherokee citi citizen zen by bood hood killed a Choctaw citizen by blood The former applied to Thompson for legal advice and was told that the case could not be tried in the Cherokee courts as the latter had jurisdiction only when both persons were Cherokee citi citizens citizens citizens zens by blood This frightened the man who jumped at the conclusion that he would be tried before Judge Parker in the federal court courtat at Fort Smith and hanged Thompson told him that this was impossible ae at a I neither of the principals was a citizen of I the United States The case was settled by the defendant appearing before the mayor of Tahlequah and an pleading guilty to disturbing the peace by b discharging firearms inside the city limits No court ever tried the man for murder nor Is It I now for any court to do so Thompson told of ot another remarkable escape from Justice This Thi time a Cherokee citizen by blood killed another Cherokee citizen by blood The defendant was regularly convicted In the tribal court and sentenced to be hanged The man was committed to the national prison at Tahlequah where he was to be kept until the day da of his execution and ana unc then hanged ha ed edby by the sheriff On the way wa to Tahlequah the prisoner escaped and fled the to coun country country country try A few months afterward Congress en enacted enacted enacted acted the Curtis Curts bill bi which wilch provided among other things that from Crom and after the 1st day of July none of the Judicial officers of the Cherokee nation naton shall per perform perform perform form any of ot the duties dutes of ot their several offices Shortly after the enactment of this law Thompson received a letter leter from the defendant away awa down in Arkansas asking Thompson to prevail upon the board of pardons of or the Cherokee nation naton to commute the defendants sentence to five yours years ear In the national prison After looking up the matter mater said Thompson I decided the time for his execution had passed that the judge who tried him could no longer him and that the high sheriff sherif whose duty It was wa to execute him had been de deprived deprived deprived or of his office The result was that thata a man who was arrested tried convicted of murder in the first firt degree sentenced to be hanged hange and who was waa never pardoned Is a free man today |