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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 87 - with the consent and under the management of Farmer Stack ; that while the Indians have taken contracts, invariably verbal, for much of thework, thelabor has been performed by white men; that in all cases Stack has furnished the.Indians with the supplies required, giving them orders on the Nelson Lumber Company's store for the goods; , that he has also paid for the labor and, so far as the facts show: has sold the cut to the Nelson Company without bids from other parties and without advertising, telling the Indians that the price he received was $6 per 1,000 feet on the river bank. January 20,1891, the agent for the La Pointe Agency was furnished with a copy of the roles anrl regulations approved by the President October 17, 1890, to govern logking operations on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations,' and was advised that the Indians on the Bond dn Lac Reservation wuld do logging nnder these regulations. Such logging had been authorized by act of Congress February 16, 1889 (25 Stats., 673), and had reference only to "dead timber standing 1 or fallen." May 7, 1891, the agent advised this office that under this authority these Indians had cut and banked on the Novtheru Pacific,lZailroad 394,100 feet of timber, and asked instractions, Authority was granted for its sale on sealed bids, in accordance with the regulations,nndt?r the suppositiou that it was dead and down timber. Iuspector Miller's re-port, however, states that the timber had actually been ctit from green and growing trees on the reservation; for such cutting there was no au-thority of law. Its uale had been authorized to Messrs. Paine & Go., who bid $3.35 per thousand feet, hut since it was cut without legal au-thority it became the absolute property of the Government, and the sale was void. Upon the recommendation of this office the Department submitted the following questions to the Attorney-General : First. Can the Indian agent st La Pointe Agency, Wis., under the instme-tions of the Indian Office, or Department of the Interior, dispose of and give a valid title tb the pine timbor out on the Fond du Leo Reservation, Minn., by Patrick Hines and Andrew Qowan, or their agents and emplog6s, during the season of 188W89, and now lying iu the woods or on skids on said reservation, and not em-braced iu any suits now pending in the court8 between the United States and these parties or any of them I Second. Should the prooeeda of anch sale (if the aame be ~llowable) be treated as belonging to the Indians oooupying the reservation or to the Unitedstatest ~ e c e i b e3r1 , 1890, he replied as follows: I I 3~11o f r l ~ no l ~ i n i otl~m~t 1 1 1 t~i u~bern ow in qusariuu rnny be soid, but t h a t rite sale sbonid br thnl ln by rhncS,,~!~tni,diucioofr the General Lnod OlRce nnder theanpervision of the Seorocary of the Interior. The timber having been cut on lends which are none the less pnblio because in-cumbered by tho Indian right of occupan-cy , it9 preservation and sale woold seem to 'This antbority w;br u~orlitlsdN ovember W, 1 890, 80 sr to permit the In6it~nso n , the other Chipps t~sR eservations in Minoosntn to do logging thereunder. |
