^^^ JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



a con- 

 one 



timber upon Indian Reservations, necessarily carries with it as c 

 comitant the understanding that if this measure is enacted into law one 

 of the results will be that each and every one of the officials of the 

 Bureau of Indian Affairs now primarily and directly engaged in this 

 work will be transferred immediately to the Forest Service, excepting 

 where such transfer is objected to by the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

 or IS not acceptable to the officer. 



Assuming the accomplishment of such a merger upon a basis not 

 distasteful to the members transferred from the Indian Office the 

 result should be beneficial to both organizations. The amalgamation 

 of the two organizations in a single Bureau would bring to bear upon 

 the line of work the combined experience, vision, and initiative of both 

 organizations. The oM adage that "two heads are better than one" 

 naturally applies here. Furthermore, the larger field organization of 

 the Forest Service in the West would materially strengthen the work 

 at many points on Indian reservation timberlands. At any rate the 

 proposed measure brings into prominence for early consideration the 

 problem of the future of the forest lands in Indian Reservations. 



Upon this point Mr. Snyder's bill presents an anomaly, for the reason 

 that Section 4 of his measure authorizes and directs the Secretary of 

 the Interior to sell, under such rules and regulations as he may pre- 

 scribe, any surplus of unallotted lands within any Indian Reservation 

 which may be m excess of that required for allotting purposes where 

 such action will not interfere with the contemplated allotment'. This 

 mstruction is accompanied by the proviso that it shall not apply to 

 any lands that are cultivated, farmed, or necessary for grazing by' any 

 Indian or Indians having rights on the Reservation not in excess of 

 his or their pro rata share. In short, while the measure provides for 

 •establishing an Indian Forest Division in the Forest Service, at the 

 same time, it contains instructions which, interpreted literally, would 

 result in the Secretary of the Interior selling all the Indian Reserva- 

 tion timber lands. In view of the questions which this Committee has 

 m the past raised regarding the eventual disposition of forest lands in 

 Indian Reservations, it is believed that the Committee expects that the 

 creation of an Indian Forest Division in the Forest Service would result 

 in the formulation of a plan for the rational disposal of forest lands 

 within the Indian Reservation, while at the same time properly safe- 

 guarding the general interests of the public as well as the special in- 

 terests of the Indians. 



