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But I mean more than this when I say the Indians had a genius for political and social organization. Anyone who will take the trouble to do a little reading in the field of Indian law, must be struck with this quality of genius. This is a new field of research and I dare say it will be some time before many people who write about Indians will take the trouble to explore what has been written. There is a brief study about Kiowa law, which some of you may know about all ready. Another deals with Comanche law. Still another, perhaps the most extended study yet published, examines the Cheyenne law.
In all of these studies one 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 punishment 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 men; 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 trouble-maker. 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,