362 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Commission, considering all qualifying factors, believes such action 

 will be in the public interest. 



I shall not argue the proposition that, if it is decided that the lands 

 should be reserved permanently for timber production and watershed 

 protection, they should be administered by the Forest Service as a 

 forestry problem. If such a conclusion does not appear to you as 

 self-evident, then any arguments which I might make in its support 

 would be subject to total discount as being special pleading. How- 

 ever, for purposes of this discussion I shall assume that Indian Reser- 

 vation timber lands which are chiefly valuable for timber production 

 and watershed protection and are contiguous to existing National 

 Forests should be included in such Forests and administered by the 

 Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. 



But. you ask, how about the Indians ? Have they no rights in this 

 matter, and are their rights and needs to be given no consideration 

 whatever? Certainly, the rights and needs of the Indians must be 

 given fullest consideration. And in this connection it is interesting to 

 note that one of the more recent specific proposals for the inclusion of 

 Indian timberlands in a National Forest originated in the Indian Serv- 

 ice and was prompted by solicitude for the well being of the Govern- 

 ment's wards. It appears in a special report submitted in response to 

 a provision of law and prepared by a commission appointed by the Hon. 

 Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to investigate and report 

 upon the present condition and future policy to be followed with ref- 

 erence to irrigation projects in the Flathead, Fort Peck, and Blackfeet 

 Indian Reservations in Montana. Of these three Reservations the first 

 named is the only one containing timberlands clearly suitable for Na- 

 tional Forest purposes. Upon the subject of timberlands the Commis- 

 sion said : 



"We find that there are 218,000 acres of timberland on the Flathead 

 Reservation, 18,000 acres of which have been allotted to Indians and 

 approximately 5,000 acres reserved for the use and benefit of the 

 tribe. There should be further reserved for the benefit of the tribe 

 5,000 acres more, making a timber reserve on this reservation of 10,000 

 acres for the exclusive use of the Indians. This would leave 190,000 

 acres remaining of timberlands.' 



"The Act of 1912, which provides for the disposition of the surplus 

 land on opened reservations, reads as follows : 



" 'That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized 

 to cause to be classified or reclassified and appraised or reappraised, 

 in such manner as he may deem advisable, the unallotted or otherwise 



