ADMINISTRATION ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS 837 



experiment that had been made in 1908 and 1909 of having the forestry 

 work on Indian Reservations conducted by the Forest Service of the 

 Department of Agriculture, convinced me that this plan was imprac- 

 ticable. I reached the conclusion that unless, or until, arrangements 

 should be made by which the Federal Government should take over 

 timberlands not needed by the Indians for agricultural or grazing pur- 

 poses and pay the Indians therefor, such timberlands should be admin- 

 istered by the Department ■ that had charge of all other interests of the 

 Indians ; that there could be no efficient administration with responsi- 

 bility divided between two Departments. Eventually the Executive 

 orders of March 2, 1909, by which an effort was made to place exten- 

 sive areas of Indian timberland in the National Forest status, were 

 revoked and the Indian Service resumed the full administration of 

 Indian timber resources. It was not long after such revocation that the 

 article from which I have quoted above was written. 



We are today not much nearer the final determination of the status 

 of Indian timljerlands than we were in 1912. On one reservation only 

 has the forested area been given a legal status as an "Indian Forest" 

 by Act of Congress. This was done on the Red Lake Reservation by 

 act of May 18, 1916 (39 Stat., 123, 137). On the other hand, all sug- 

 gestions that the large areas of non-agricultural forest lands on various 

 reservations be opened to unregulated exploitation have been success- 

 fully opposed except in the case of the Choctaw-Chickasaw timberlands 

 in eastern Oklahoma. As the United States had no legal interest in 

 these lands and the Congress was unwilling to appropriate the amount 

 necessary to purchase them, the Indian Service was unable to prevent 

 their sale, notwithstanding a strong conviction on the part of myself 

 and others in the Service that the public interest would be served by the 

 maintenance of a National Forest upon this very rough and non-agri- 

 cultural area. 



The general regulations for the administration of Indian Forest land, 

 approved June 29, 1911, under authority of the act of June 25, 1910 

 (36 Stat., 855. 857), have been superseded by the regulations approved 

 February 5. 1918, but in the preparation of the revision I kept con- 

 stantly in mind the view that the Indian not only has property rights to 

 protect but also has social and moral responsibilities as to the manner 

 in which his property is used, and has the same interest in the future 

 welfare of his county, State and Nation as has his white neighbor. 



