Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/912

 HlOQ FEDERAI^ BEFOBTEB. �This iotercourse is a subject of federal jarisdictipii, the Bame as the naturalization of aliena, the subject of bank- ruptcies, or the establishment of post-offices, and therefore eoqgress may pass laws regulating or even forbidding it, and providing fcr the punishment of acts or conduct growing out of it or connected therewith, resulting in injury to either the Indian or the other party, or calculated to interriipt or destroy its pes.cef ul or, beneficiai charaoter,. �Section 5356 of the Revised Statutes, which provides for the punishment of larceny eommitted in a place within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, was made a part of the act of 1834, by section 25 thereof, whenever the larceny was eommitted by a white man upon thegooda of an Indian, and vice versa; and as such it was, in my judgment, extended over Oregon on June 6, 1850, — it not being locally inapplica- ble any more than the provision concerning the disposition of spirituous liquor to an Indian. Nor did the admission of the state into the Union upon "an equal footing" with the other states have the effect to modify or repeal this provision. If the same provision could not be made and enforced in every other state at the wili of congress, then, of course, the admis- sion of Oregon into the Union upon an equality with the other states would have worked a repeal of it. But congress has the power to legislate upon the subject of intercourse with Indian tribes, wherever they exist, irrespective of state lines or governments; and this provision against larceny by the parties to this intercourse, being well calculated to preserve the peace between them and prevent it from resulting in the eheddiag of innocent blood and cruel and devasta ting Indian wars, is a,s convenient and necessary to that end as any other that can be suggested. If congress can punish the defendant for buying Shick-Shuck's blanket — trading for it — why not for stealing it ? �Upon the national government is devolved the power and duty tp supervise and control the interoourse between the In- dian and its citizens, so that, so far as possible, each may be protected from wrong and injury by the other, and in the exercise of this power, and the performance of this duty, ��� �