OCR Text |
Show REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 55 that a commission, to be composed of the United States Indian agent at Green Bay Agency, the superintendent of logging, a scaler, an agent of the Department, and agents of the State of Wisconsin, of Perley, Lowe % Do., and of Seymour W. ~ol l isteorf Oshkosh, Wis. (purchasers of the logs from Perley, Lowe % Do.), go upon the lands described, for the purpose of ascertaining the exact quantity of timber cut and removed which was involved in this claim. Jnly 13,1898, the report of that commission was transmitted to the Department, the commission certifying: "A careful examination has been made with respect to the illegal cutting of timber, and it is found that there has been cut and removed fromlands belonging to the State of Wisconsin 1.044,500 feet, board measure, of pine timber and logs." It has been the cnstom in the vicinity of the agency, where a trespass oi onthing timber has been commit$ed that was not malicious or will-ful, to settle with the owner of the timber for what the standing trees or stumpage were worth. In view of this fact, it was recommended as the most equitable procedure that, as the standing trees or stump-age on the lands claimed by the State were worth about $8 per 1,000 feet, the State of Wisconsin shonld settle on that basis, if it had s just claim. The Department, July 25,1898, approved the report of the com-mission as to the amount of pine timber and logs cut and removed from the lands belonging to the State of Wisconsin within the Menomonee Indian Reservation, and also approved the recommendation that the trespass shonld be settled upon the basis of $8 per 1,000 feet, the net value of the timber. July 27, 1898, the Indian agent at Green Bay Agency was directed to require Perley, Lowe & 00, to deposit the sum of $25,000, being the balance of the amount dne on their contract for the purchase of logs on the Menomonee Indian Reservation, their bond of indemnity to be returned to them after making such deposit. On the same data the chief inspector of lands of the State of Wisconsin was informed of the approval of the report of the commission as to the amount of the timber cut and removed, and also of the authorization by the Department of the settlement of the trespass upon the basis of $8 per 1,000 feet, and the chief inspector was requested to take the necessary steps to have the State of Wisconsinpresent a claim, through its proper officers, for the payment for 1,044,500 feet of pine timber and logs improperly cut and removed from lands belonging to the State. LEASING OF INDIAN LANDS. For the terms on which Indian lands can be leased, sea the annual report for 1897 (p. 40). UNALLOWED OR TRIBAL LANDS. Since the date of the last' annual report the following leases of tribal lands have been approved: Crow Remation, Mont.-In the annual reports for 1895-96 will be found a list of six grazing leases on this reservation, flve of them for the |