Spirituous Liquors
No spirituous liquors have been distributed among these nations for many years past, but should it be given them in quantity it would be productive of great poverty and distress. They all drink whenever they can get it—men, women, and children—except the Crow Indians, who will not taste it. The usual consequence of drinking spirits is poverty, as they will sell or give away everything they possess and prostitute their women and children to obtain liquor when once intoxicated. These Indians have never had a constant supply of spirits—that is, enough to produce diseases or nervous debility. Their frolics were made at intervals of months apart and never lasted more than 24 hours at a time. They are not quarrelsome in their families when inebriated, generally sing or cry for their dead relations; but among those who are not of kin quarrels often occur which occasionally result in the death of one of them. It is morally wrong and productive of great evil, in our opinion, to sell or give ardent spirits to any Indian.