OCR Text |
Show 7' ff 1 _ 1 • D-o3. D E P A 1 . T M E N T Oly T H E INTERIOR, Q. J. G. W A S H I N G T O N , I JULIO ^07 Tho Commissionor of Indian Affairs-, Sir: Tho Department is in receipt of a memorandum prepared by your office on a cc A.unicatlon addrnnnncl hero by Senator Sutherland relative; to an aroudmont to tho Indian appropriation act of Juno 21, 1900 (34 Stat., 525, 576), which provides: That the Secretary of the Interior nay authorize the I;u!i':nn of the former Uintah P. on or vat.ion, in the State of Utah, to cut and sell cedar and pine timber for posts or fuel from tho tracts reserved for gracing purposes for said Indiana under joint resolution of June nineteenth, nineteen hundred and two, in such quantities, and upon terms and under such ru.len r,nd rcgu- ' lotions an tho :.~id Sccrotary of the Interior may proscribe It Appears that this provision has heretofore boon construed by y-'^r office and tho Department to mean that the In- • dians must personally cut the timber. It is declared that unci or such construction the law is virtually a nullity as the Indians aro averse to doing the work. Your office Expresses tho view, having reference to the construction of and practice under the ret of February 16 1PS9 (25 Stat., 675), which cen tains language similar to that of the provision in question, that snid provision is succoptiblo of a construction under which the Indian agent of tho Uintah md Ouray Agency may bo authorised to permit white settlors to cut K |