Stanley Matthews

Name: Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court
Author: Stanley Matthews

Summary

"Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court," authored by Stanley Matthews, is a legal opinion addressing the intricate jurisdictional and treaty-related concerns involving the Dakota and other Native American tribes within U.S. territories. Written within the context of 19th-century legal structures, it explores the legal standing of Indigenous peoples as "wards" under U.S. law, their submission to federal authority, and the consequences of agreements regulating reservations and territorial limits. The text investigates the conflicts between tribal independence and federal supervision, highlighting the U.S.

government’s role in upholding laws on reservations and the constraints on tribal self-rule. Through a thorough examination of legal codes and treaty clauses, Matthews delineates the judicial power over crimes committed by Native Americans, emphasizing the federal government’s duty to oversee interactions between tribes and settlers while reconciling the tensions between assimilation and self-determination. The opinion ultimately illustrates the legal and moral uncertainties of a nation striving to incorporate Indigenous communities into its growing territorial and political framework.

Quotes from Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court (Stanley Matthews)

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ They were nevertheless to be subject to the laws of the United States, not in the sense of citizens, but, as they had always been, as wards, subject to a guardian; not as individuals, constituted members of the political community of the United States, with a voice in the selection of representatives and the framing of the laws, but as a dependent community who were in a state of pupilage, advancing from the condition of a savage tribe to that of a people who, through the discipline of labor, and by education, it was hoped might become a self-supporting and self-governed society. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ If the land reserved for the exclusive occupancy of Indians lies outside the exterior boundaries of any organized territorial government, it would require an act of congress to attach it to a judicial district, of which there are many instances, the latest being the act of January 6, 1883, by which a part of the Indian territory was attached to the district of Kansas and a part of the northern district of Texas. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ The United States agrees that the agent for said Indians shall in future make his home at the agency building; that he shall reside among them, and keep an office open at all times for the purpose of prompt and diligent inquiry into such matters of complaint by and against the Indians as may be presented for investigation under their treaty stipulations, as also for the faithful discharge of other duties enjoined upon him by law. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ The condition of the tribe, in point of civilization, is illustrated by stipulations on the part of the Indians, that they will not interfere with the construction of railroads on the plains or over their reservation, nor attack persons at home or traveling, nor disturb wagon trains, mules, or cattle belonging to the people of the United States, nor capture nor carry off white women or children from the settlements, nor kill nor scalp white men, nor attempt to do them harm. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ As a territorial court it administers the local law of the territorial government; as invested by act of congress with jurisdiction to administer the laws of the United States, in has all the authority of circuit and district courts; so that, in the former character, it may try a prisoner for murder committed in the territory proper, under the local law, which requires the jury to determine whether the punishment shall be death or imprisonment for life ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ The laws to which they were declared to be subject were the laws then existing, and which applied to them as Indians, and, of course, included the very statute under consideration, which excepted from the operation of the general laws of the United States, otherwise applicable, the very case of the prisoner. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ It tries them not by their peers, nor by the customs of their people, nor the law of their land, but by superiors of a different race, according to the law of a social state of which they have an imperfect conception, and which is opposed to the traditions of their history, to the habits of their lives, to the strongest prejudices of their savage nature ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stanley Matthews, Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca — Opinion of the Court

“ The preceding section shall not be construed to extend to [crimes committed by one Indian against the person or property of another Indian, nor to] any Indian committing any offense in the Indian country who has been punished by the local law of the tribe, or to any case where by treaty stipulations the exclusive jurisdiction over such offenses is or may be secured to the Indian tribes respectively.'
That part of section 2146 placed within brackets was in the act of twenty-seventh March, 1854, c. ”

Stanley Matthews

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