| OCR Text |
Show COMMISSIONER 0,F INDIAN AFFAIRS. 51 USE OF CEDED LANDS. Under various acts passed by Congress within recent years certain iaods ceded by the Indians to the United States are open to settle-ment and entry, and the Government endeavors to dispose of them at their appraised value for the benefit of the Indians. Nearly all of such acts contain a clause practically identical with the following: That nothing in this act shall in any manner bind the United States to gur-chase any portion of the lands herein described, * * * or to dispose of said land except as provided herein, or to gunrantee to find purehasera for said lands or any portion thereof, it being the intention of this act that the United States shall act as trustee for said Indians to dispose of the said lnnds, and to expend and pay over the proceeds received from the sale thereof only ns received and as herein provided. It has been the practice to consider such lands under the jurisdic; tion and supervision of the General Land Office from the passage of the act, and the Indians' title thereto extinguished. On this theory the public at large has come to consider said lands a part of the public domain, and the lands have therefore been used indiscrimi-nately by various interests, principally for grazing purposes. without . compensation to the Indians. By departmental decision of November 27, 1911, it was held in effect that the Indians' title to such lands is not extinguished until date of entry, settlement, or sale, and the Indians are entitled to their use, or to any revenue that may be derived from their use by others, pending date of settlement, sale, or entry. Following this decision the matter was considered jointly by rep-resentatives of this office and the General Land Office, and a set of regulations has been drafted to provide for proper concurrent juris-diction and the collection, for the benefit of the Indians, of grazing fees from the users of the lands pending actual settlement, entry, or sale. It is believed that the regulations when put into effect upon the various reservations where applicable will be the means of securing to the Indians large sums of money which heretofore have been last to them, without interfering with the speedy sale or other disposi-tion of the lands as provided by Congress. FORESTRY. During the past year particular attention has been given to con-struction work on the Indian reservations for the purpose of increas-ing the efficiency of fire protection and administration of timber matters. The timbered areas on the reservations are being district4 as far as practicable for the purpose of patrol and administration and a forest guard assigned to each district and placed in charge, |
