United States v. Tadish

• Decision Date: 01 January 1913
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. TADISH et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Arizona

211 F. 490

UNITED STATES v. TADISH et al.

United States District Court, D. Arizona.

October Term, 1913

J. E Morrison, Dist. Atty., of Phoenix, Ariz., for the United States.

J. L B. Alexander, of Phoenix, Ariz., for defendants.

SAWTELLE District Judge.

The indictment in this case charges that:

'Steve Tadish, Andrew Sitka, Antonio Plich, Chris Wiech, and Stephen Bovvavich, on or about the 10th day of October 1913, at the county of Gila, in the said district and within the jurisdiction of said court, did unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously introduce intoxicating liquor, to wit, one gill of whisky, into and upon the Indian country, to wit, into and upon the San Carlos Division of the White Mountain Indian Reservation, in the county of Gila, state and district of Arizona.'

The testimony discloses that the same defendants left Globe, Ariz., which is without the Indian Reservation, with the avowed purpose and intention of going on a hunt in the White Mountains, and that the driver was to take them to a cabin near what is called the Government Sawmill, about 100 miles beyond Rice, Ariz., where they were arrested. The parties were traveling in a spring wagon, and stopped on or very near the public road near Rice, to camp, reaching there before daybreak, and stopping for the purpose of rest. The government officers, hearing a noise, went to the camp, where they found some of the defendants asleep in the wagon, and some on the ground near by. When the officers came, they found in the front part of the wagon a half gallon jug of whisky, which had never been opened, and after the arrest of the defendants, on a search of the wagon, they found a pint flask of whisky, on the bottom of the wagon, under the blankets on which some of the defendants were sleeping when they were arrested.

There was no evidence which tended to show that the defendants intended or expected to dispose of the liquor to any of the Indians, or to allow the Indians to get it, or that it was intended for any other purpose than that of consumption by the party while on their hunt.

The evidence shows that the cabin to which the driver was to take the defendants was beyond the confines of the San Carlos Division of the White Mountain Reservation, but leaves the question whether it was on the reservation in doubt. We pass by the question whether the indictment, charging as it does an introduction of the liquor into the San Carlos Division of the White Mountain Indian Reservation, is proved by showing that the persons were simply passing through that division of the reservation to a point outside of it, though within another Indian Reservation, or another division thereof (though this question is a material one under the proof in this case), and will consider the case as it would stand if it were admitted that the house or place to which they were bound was clearly shown to be a part of, or within the San Carlos Division of,...