Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) SIOUX INDIAN COURTS AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY DOANE ROBINSON OF PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA BEFORE THE SOUTH DAKOTA BAR ASSOCIATION AT PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA JANUARY 21, 1909 R. C. SESSIONS & SONS SIOUX FALLS S. D. SIOUX INDIAN COURTS In their primitive life the Sioux Indians of North America had an intelligent system of jurisprudence, varying somewhat in the different bands, as our court practice varies in the several states, but nevertheless recognizing the same general principles throughout the confederacy.[1] [1] Most writers upon Indian life have noted the existence of these courts. Since undertaking this paper, I have consulted Hump, One Bull, Wakutemani and Simon Kirk, all intelligent Sioux and, save as otherwise noted, they are my authorities for the statements herein contained. It is not an easy thing to determine the laws or the practices of an unlettered people, who have abandoned the wild and primitive life to live under regulations prescribed by their conquerors, and who must depend upon tradition and recollection for the practices of the old life; but fortunately intelligent observers have from time to time, during the past two and one half centuries, noted their observations, and these, supplemented by the recollections of the older men now living, give to us a fairly clear understanding of the courts and the legal practices of these people.