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Show REPOBT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. CIII the President, asking for his approval, aa required by the act of Febru-ary 10,1889 (23 Stats., 673). Phis was granted October 16,1889, and on the 22d of the same month a wpy of the rules nuder which the logging was' to be conducted was lent to the agent, and he was in-structed to see that they were s t r i c t l~td hered to. Notwithstanding his report that those who proposed to engage in loggiug were prepared to do so, I received a letter dated Jannary 29, 1890, from a lumber firm of Red Lake Falls, saying that the Indians of Red Lake Reserration were unable to prosecute the work on account of the want of outfits and ~dippliesw, hich the j mere too poor to purchase, and that they were rery a.nxious that a contract which they claimed to have made with this firm for a sale of 6,000,000 feet of their timber, at the rate of $6 per 1,000 feet, be approved. They forwarded the follow-ing petition, signed by abont seventy of the leading men of the tribe: We, the undersigned, Indians residing on the Red Lake Reservation, in Minnesota, respeotfully submit for your consideration the following: When we negotiated the treaty with the Chippewa commission ceding our lends, we were promised the privilege to cut and diapose of the dead and down timber on our reservation until the time of valuation of the timber preceding the sale of same. During the past yearsmillions of feet of timber h a ~ bee en allowed to rot and waete a by worms and fire. There are now many millions of feet whioh will rat snd waste onleaswe are enabled to log it. The Commissioner of Indian Atfsirahm made a roling allowing us to cut ant1 diepose of the dead and down timber on the Red Lake Reser-vation, but this ruling furnishes us with no relief, as we are about 100 miles from set-tlement, and we have very few cattle, no sleighs, and no supplies in the way of pro-yisions or tools. Underthe ruling, which does not protect the furnisher, we have been unable to in-duce any one to supply us and we are now 1xiog idle and in wrsnt. We earneatly request that our contract (with thelumber oompany in question) made last August, now on file in the Indian Department, be approved, and they be granted the privilege to ftunish us with the necessary soppliea for logging. This petition was aceompauied by a letter from tbe commissioners appointed to negotiate with the Chippewas under act of January 14, 1869 (25 Stat., 642): in which the statewents of the foregoing petition were fully sustained, and the following remark added: We respectfully call the serious and immediate attention of the Commissioner to this subject, as the Indians are now idle and iu want. Jannary 31,1890, I laid the papers before the Department and ex-plained that the contract referred to was dated Red L a ~ Fea lls, Minn., August 24,1889, was approved by the agent of White Earth Agency September 16, 1889, and by him submitted to this office and the De-partneut; that it was entered into b~ the Indians and the lumber firm, with approval of the agent, prior to the granting of authority and pre- 8cribing of rules for logging by the President, as above set forth, and that the agent was no doubt under the impresssion when the contract was made that the Indians would he allowed to carry on their logging operations in that manner. Furthermore, the lumber firm had agreed in writing that in case their |
