INDIAN RESERVATION TIMBERLANDS 365 



equities of such Indian tribes therein." This, I feel, is not sufficient. 

 It leaves tthe Indians holding an empty sack, depending upon future 

 action by Congress. I feel that the various steps should be as follows : 



(1) A definite classification by the Secretary of Agriculture based 

 upon dependable data; (2) Approval of that classification by the Na- 

 tional Forest Reservation Commission; (3) Inclusion of the land with- 

 in a National Forest by Presidential proclamation; (4) Appraisement 

 by the Commission and determination of the proper price to be paid 

 the Indians for the property taken over by the Federal Government, 

 together with terms and manner of payment. 



I do not feel that it is either necessary or desirable that the full 

 purchase price be paid to the Indians before the land is added to the 

 National Forest, but I do feel that before the lands are added there 

 should be adequate machinery provided for determining the values, 

 fixing the purchase price, and the terms of payment, making proper 

 provision for the addition of interest earnings upon all deferred pay- 

 ments, and, finally, actually providing for payment within a reasonable 

 time. Certainly it is not to the interests of the Indians for the Govern- 

 ment to pay the entire amount in one lump sum and distribute that 

 lump sum among them to be immediately dissipated by reckless impro- 

 vidence. Neither is it to their interest to have the entire purchase price 

 paid into the United States Treasury and held to their credit for future 

 distribution without interest earnings. It would seem that the broad 

 interests of the Indians would be better served by a plan which would 

 secure to ihem the full value of the Indian lands as of their date of 

 addition to the National Forests, plus a proper interest allowance upon 

 all deferred payments, provided this is accompanied by the certainty 

 of the receipt of not less than a definite fixed amount each year. 



The form of legislation proposed by the Secretary's letter of Janu- 

 ary 23 so provided by making the Treasury share of the receipts from 

 the National Forests within each State a fund available for the Na- 

 tional Forest Reservation Commission to draw upon each year in the 

 liquidation of such obligations to the amount of not to exceed $100,000 

 in any one State in any one year, plus the gross receipts obtained from 

 the Indian Reservation lands added to the National Forests under the 

 proposed plan. A careful canvas of the situation indicates that by this 

 method the Indians' equity would be completely liquidated on each 

 reservation area thus added to the National Forests within a maximum 

 period of 15 years. 



