Chief Oshkosh Case Analysis

The trial of Chief Oshkosh for the murder of Pawnee tribe member Okeguay due to a Menominee tradition of retaliation executions served less as an execution of justice and more as a drawn-out legal proceeding with no direct consequences and massive legal ramifications. This actual intention behind the trial becomes clear through the actions and statements of Judge James D. Doty. Baird records that upon his motion for final judgment in light of the conviction, “the Judge gave, at length, an opinion upon which facts states in the special verdict”. The Judge Doty proclaimed that “as the individual who had been killed by the accused was himself a Indian, and the accused was one of the nation amongst whom a custom existed, allowing the relation of …show more content…
Judge Doty’s decision extended past just Chief Oshkosh, as “one of the other defendants, haven been found guilty by an other jury on a general verdict, was also discharged by the judge… founded upon the same principles” . The liberation of the Native Americans accused of illegally killing Okeguay serves as a microcosm for Judge Doty’s, and the circuit court’s, application of American laws to Native American affairs. Found in an earlier paper that Henry Baird archived, he writes that Judge Doty also stated that because the crime was committed “by a Indian upon a Indian” then “the crime is not, consequently, amenable to the laws of the Michigan …show more content…
At the heart of the trial, concerns over tribal cultures’ sovereignty and the role the United States government could play in Native American societies are found. The legal arguments of the jury, prosecution, and judge all blend together to create an ambiguous special verdict that specifies the legitimacy of tribal traditions while reinforcing the circuit court’s ultimate power over assigning and specifying the terms of these traditions. Due to this multi-faceted ruling, Menominee concerns were assuaged by the temporary confirmation of their autonomy and United States judicial rights to interfere in the affairs of Native Americans were also reinforced. What in contemporary times is considered a fascinating anecdote in the history of the formation of the Wisconsin government had much darker undertones during the time period. Ultimately, the conviction of Chief Oshkosh for murder represented an assertion of federal power over Native American affairs without the genuine interest or dedication to policing those