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There is a brief study about Kiowa law, which some of you may know about all ready [[already]]. Another deals with Comanche law. Still another, perhaps the most extended study yet published, examines the Cheyenne law. 

In all of these studies on basic principle comes to the surface. Law with these people, and I dare say it will be found to be true of many others when further studies are made--law was not a matter of apprehending the criminal and punishing him for his sins. Or stated in more cynical language, law was not a device by which guilty men might avoid punished for their sins. Law with these Indian tribes had a deeper concern for the individual and the society in which he lived. Law was concerned with finding out what was wrong and fixing it so that nothing would go wrong again. Only rarely were extreme penalties, such as capital punishment, meted out against any man; because usually Indian law could find solutions which smoothed out the trouble and there was no reason to take extreme measures. The only time that became necessary was when the wrongdoer was deliberately and persistently a troublemaker. Then the forces of law might do away with him before some individual member acted out of anger and brought trouble on himself. 

The importance of this, and why I say it reveals a special genius, is because it shows that the old Indian life was profoundly concerned with maintaining order and decency. The thing of greatest importance, seemingly, was the preservation of the group, the family, the band, the tribe. Disturbing the peace, in white man's law, is a misdemeanor; but among the old Kiowas it was a serious crime, because a breach of the peace could lead to more serious trouble in the course of events could emboil the entire tribe. Therefore, upon every member of the tribe was laid the injunction, "Do not make trouble." 

This, I insist, is not the rule of behavior of a warlike people. 

We all of us here, I say, are concerned for the future of our Indian people, our families , our friends. We have come from practically every state in which there is a sizeable Indian population: from Montana, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nevada, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, Oregon, and Alaska. We are here to take such actions as recommend themselves, to say what needs to be said, in Indian behalf. 

We are here united, all speaking for one, any one of us prepared to stand and speak for all. In this is our Indian creed, our concern for the preservation of all our people. The significance of our meeting lies in this, and nothing more. Our National Congress of American Indians, after only three years of active campaigning, has established itself as the medium through which Indian opinion and Indian desires are expressed. On

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