OCR Text |
Show Authority for such dispwition of the timber was granted this office -by the Department, as follows: I have considered your cornmonioation of the 29th ultimo, wherein yon ask ;f t h e tops ;tndbutts of pine trees cut for sale onder the provisions of the sot of June U, 1890, can be made into shingle bolts and sold by the Menomonees. The act above referred to provides "that not exceeding twenty milltons of feet of timber shall be logged and sold in any one year." As the tops and butts %re not timber such as was oontemolated bv the aot to be furnished and disnosed of. Ism of opinion the same can be sold for firewood or ahingle bolt;, and authoiityis hereby granted for tlie diaposition thereof under anch ~egt~Pationa8s you may prescribe. On the 9th of October the agent was notified by this office accord-ingly, and told: You will be allowea' to use your own judgment in supervising the operations of such of the Menomorleas aa may engage in the work, principally to see that they re-ceive a fair price for the wood; that all necessery precautions are taken to prevent ares from starting, and that they do not dispose of any timber which the law pro-hibits them from selling this year, in addition to what has already been sold. , Notwithstanding these positive instructions, the Indians did not confine their operations to the chwacter of timber authorized. Febru-ary 29,1892, the agent reported to this office that they had cut down standing trees contrary to law and were about to dispose of them, and he asked to be advised whether it was his duty or the duty of the dis-trict attorney to seize the timber thus illegally cut. As the Attorney-General, under date of December 31,1890, had given it as his opinion in regard to a similar case on the Fond du Cae Reser-vation, Minn., that it was the duty of the General'Land Office to attend to it, I referred the matter to the Oommissiouer of that office March 4,1892. May 20,1892, he replied that up to that time it had been impossible to detail an agent to make the investigation, and that the exigencies of the service and the condition of the appropriation were such as to makeit impossible to state when ths matter could be taken up, but that as the matter stood an offer to purchase should not be eiltertained. The igent was promptly notified to this effect, and there the matter rests, except that the office has recommended that an Indian inspector be directed to make a thorough investigation and report the exact status of the ease. I may add that the Menomonees have requested arenewal of anthor-ity to sell shingle bolts this summer, but in view of the foregoing I did not recommend to the Department that their request be granted. In my last report I stated that the Menomonees, during the year, had cut and banked 2,769,560 feet of timber in excess of the quaaity allowed by law, which sold for $27,453.40. This amount, by direction of the Department was deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the United States, and so remained until the act of July 13, 1892, making appropriations for the Indian service for the current fiscal year (see page -) providedfor paying this sum to the Indians. Accordingly, on Augast 2, $8,968.53 was placed to the agent's credit, to be paid to the |