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Show 74 BEPOBT OF THE COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFF-bI&S. MENOMINEE RESERVATION. Reference was made in my last report to the act of June 28, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 547), which authorized the cutting and sale of the dead-and- down timber in what is known as the "blown down district '' on the Menominee Reservation, in Wisconsin. Modified regulations gov-erning logging operations under the act were promulgated on April 8, 1907, and John W. Goodfellow was appointed superintendent of logging. The locations of three mill sites have been approved, and contracts for the cutting of the timber are under consideration. During the logging season of 1906-7 the Menominees cut and . banked 17,500,000 feet of green and dead-and-down pine and hem-lock saw logs under the act of June 12, 1890 (26 Stat. L., 146). The logs were sold under sealed bids to the Paine Lumber Company, C i t e d , for $325,700, or at the rate of $18.61+ per thousand feet, the highest price ever obtained for the Menominee timber. LEASINQ OW INDIAN I,Amm. I have planned to make an experimqnt of giving to progressive Indians greater freedom in the management of their allotments, so that while their lands are held in trust they may better qualify them-selves to transact their own business and thus be prepared to take full charge of their affairs at the expiration of the trust period. Steps have been taken to ascertain at several agencies the names of Indians presumtively capable of managing or leasing their lands and collecting the rentals without departmental supervision, and also the names of parents who may safely be permitted to manage or lease the lauds of their children now in school; and the Department has approved my recommendation that 30 Indians of the Crow Creek Agency, in South Dakota, 33 of the Southern Ute Agency, in Colo-rado, and 70 of the Shoshoni Agency in Wyoming, be permitted to try their hands at managing their allotments as indicated. The terms for which allotted lands may be leased were mentioned in the last annual report. Grazing leases for more than one year and farming leases for more than two years provide for placing some substantial improvements on the premise or for breaking new land. National banks have been selected as depositories for funds arising from leasing lands of minor orphans and for all individual Indian moneys which are not already provided for where the amounts are large enough to justify the banks in giving bonds to guarantee their safety. The following list includes leases approved between August 15, 1906, and August 15,1907: |