Law and Order in Arizona

Sheriff Harper was the sheriff at the town of Oak Creek or whatever name he mentioned.

So Arizona had town governments with town sheriffs and town marshals or town police.

Sheriff Harper mentions a territorial reward for Comanche Todd. So there is an Arizona territorial government. That means there are counties in Arizona with country courts to try cases according to territorial law.

So why is General Howard trying a criminal case and saying that like it or not he is the law? What gives?

Added 07-22-2018.

In Taza Son of Cochise (1954) Taza proposes that Apaches should punish bad Apaches and General Crook says: "The authority for punishing crimes rests with the United States government."

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=taza-son-of-cochise

The opening credits of The Last Wagon (1956) say "Arizona Territory 1873", and the narrator of Taza Son of Cochise (1954) says that Cochise makes a peace treaty in 1872 (sometime between 1872.0 and 1873.0) and dies three years later (3.0 to 4.0 years). Thus Cochise dies and Taza Son of Cochise begins sometime during the period of 1875.0 to 1877.0.

Arizona Territory was founded February 24, 1864. The third territorial governor was Anson P. K. Safford, in office from July 9, 1869 to April 5, 1877, a term that includes the fictional dates of The Last Wagon and Taza Son of Cochise. Governor Safford is a character in Walk the Proud Land (1956) with a fictional date of 1874.

So Arizona had a functional territorial government including courts by the 1870s, as well as some county governments and municipal governments, and the federal government was only responsible for punishing federal crimes.

So the movies tend to imply that there was martial law in Arizona in the 1870s.