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Show been and were Wig perpetrated-mainly by whit-n full-blood allottees holding restricted lands, and that the lands of minor mixed bloods were being purchased, encumbered, and denuded of timber. Through the Department of Justice suits were instituted to cancel and set aside these fraudulent conveyances, and as a basis for investi-gating these fraud cases a roll of 5,093 allottees of the reserv&tion was prepared, showing the degree of Indian blood. On June 8. 1914, the Supreme Court, in the case of the United States w. First National Bank (234 U. S., 245), held that the term "mixed blood," found in the act of June 21, 1906, meant that any identifiable quantum of blood other than Indian blood relieves the allotments of the adult Chippewas from all restrictions upon alienation. Since inaugurating this work 1,299 suits have been instituted by the Government to recover, approximately, 103,920 acres of land alleged to have been illegally alienated, and for accounting by various defendants for timber cut and removed therefrom. Three bills have been filed in equity to clear title to 288 allotments, aggregating 23,040 acres, and 170 cases of alleged fraudulent conveyance have been pre-pared and reported for suit. Decrees and orders in favor of the United States were obtained in 45 cases, by which 4,906.82 acres were recovered to the Indians; $700 paid in fines; and $13,000 paid for land sold, representing a total of $86,602.30. There was collected from timber trespass and depredations $45,000; 7 claims were set-tled out of court, representing $29,333.86; 22 quit-claim deeds were obtained, clearing title to 1,760 acres; and $25,009 was collected as additional compensation for minors' lands. The net result is that there has been collected in cash, recovered in land values, and for timber settlements and trespass, more than $200,000. Four suits have also been instituted by the Government to restrain the county o5cials of Becker, Mahnoman, and Clearwater Counties, in which the White Earth Reservation is located, from wrongfully taxing trust lands still held by allottees, whether full blood or mixed. These tax cases involve lands aggregating 69,204.11 acres. INDIAN FORESTS. The spring and summer of 1914 were exceptionally dry throughout the Northwestern States, where our most extensive Indian timber holdings are located. Superintendents of the Colville and Yakima . Reservations reported a drought more marked than even in the year 1910, which was noted for exceptionally disastrous forest fires. Although the calendar year 1914 showed an increase over 1913 in both the number of fires and the damage done, the loss was very small in comparison to the value of the timber and forest resources which the Indian Service undertakes to protect with a very limited |
