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Show COlfbIISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. xliii Menomonees, Green Bay Ag~mcy, Fi8. Last season these Indians faithfully adhered to their promise not to cut any growing timber, except such as was necessary to clear land for agricultural pur-poses, and not to start any fire iu the woods. They were, therefore, again allowed,to engage in marketing dead-and-down timber from their reservation in Wisconsin; and although they were late in comrriencing operations their work during the season resulted very satisfactorily, as they succeeded in baukiug nearly 8,300,000 feet of logs, beside some 575 cedar posts and railway-ties, all of which sold for over $86,000. Prom t h i ~am ount, according to custom and with their full consent, 10 uer cent: was first deducted and added to their stumpage or poor fund, to be used for the lnaintenar~ceo f their hospital and the suppo~otf the old, sick, and otherwise helpless poor of .the tribe. The balarlce, less the expeuse of scalirrg, ~Ivertlsiug,e te., amounting to about $300, and. less a further sum of about $1,200, referred to below, was paid by the agent to those properly entitled, in exact proportior1 to the scale of each man'a logs. The pa.ymeut was entirely satisfactory to all. The $1,200 still unpaid is the proceeds of a small lot of timber removed from ooe of the sixteenth sections of the reservation, which section is elaimed by a lumber merchant in that vicinity as his, he haviug pur-chased it from t.he State, which assumed the right to dispose of it, for the reason that it had bee11 reserved for school purposes. The question of title in these sixteenth sections on the Dlerlornonce lieserve, of which there are teu, is rlow before the proper court for decision, and is a matter of ntuc.ll pecuniary interest to the Indiaus,inasmuch as the timber on these sectious is pine of the Brrest quality. The Menornooses are making go011 n8e of their logging money. The majority of them are industrious, thrifty, and progressive, and fully realize t.he benefits which they and their desoeu<b&ntma ay derive from their tirnber if it is properly Iiandled. They wish to do the work them-selves, aud ikom a careful cor~siderationo f their work ant1 its results during the past three or four years, and especially during last season, I believe it would be for their best interests to allow them to market all their timber on some such plan 8,s that which has been suggested to Congress. The Menomonee timber may safely he estirnated at from 450,000,000 to 500,000,000 feet. To market this would give the Indians, at a reason-able calcnlatiou, twenty-five or thirty years of steady, paying employ-ment during the winter season, when they can not work on their farms. The matter seems to be of sufficient importance to have the attention of Congress again called thereto. The authority under vhich, for the past five or six wir~terst,h ese In- \ dians have out and marketed their dead.and-down timber has been granted each year by the, Department, on recommendation of this office, said recommendat,ion being based on a decision rendered May 19, 1882, by Hou. H. hf. Te,ller, then Secretary of the Interior, in regard to the |