Okay, I have a question. I came across an article wherein a case involving a Jo-Wa-Lee for keeping an opium den was transfered from the Muskogee Court to the Ardmore court in June, 1890. I know opium dens were a problem in the west and were generally introduced by Chinese migrants. But, I did not realize the practice had hit Indian Territory this early. Anyone else have any information on this?

Interesting question, Mike, to which I don't have an answer, but only more questions. I wonder exactly what law made the opium den in question illegal--it was probably a state or local law, because opium and its derivatives were at that time still legal products from a federal perspective and, as you know, used quite frequently in patent medicines. In 1890 (according to http://opiods.com/timeline/) the "US Congress, in its earliest law-enforcement legislation on narcotics, imposes a tax on opium and morphine." The same source states that opium was not at the federal level banned until 1905.

--meursault

That might be. The Indian Territory court, like the Ft. Smith court before it, extended the laws of the state of Arkansas on U. S. Citizens living in the Territory. I don't have a copy of those laws for the time frame. There is however a provision in the act organizing the I. T. court under misdemeanors, undefined, labeled "Acts Injurious to Public Health and Morals." Opium dens may have been defined as injurious by case law or prior opinions, thus allowing the prosecuting attorney to request a warrant.