ADMINISTRATION ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS 841 



with the duty of making the only examination, classification, and ap- 

 praisal for which an appropriation is provided. The only direct official 

 representative that the Indian owners of this property — worth possibly 

 sixty millions of dollars— have in this proposed transaction is the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior, who is one of the seven members of the National 

 Forest Reservation Commission ; but he is not provided with the means 

 of ascertaining the value of the property to be taken from the Indians. 

 Theoretically the other six members of the Commission, all responsible 

 public officials, would approve no valuation that was not entirely fair 

 to the Indians ; but practically these officials would in all probability 

 have even a weaker basis for a judgment than would the Secretary of 

 the Interior. It might be difficult for representatives of the Forest 

 Service to place themselves in the role of disinterested appraisers. It 

 would be far more difficult to convince the Indians that a just appraisal 

 thus made was in fact a fair one. The bill contemplates a sort of con- 

 demnation proceeding in which there is an opportimity for the sugges- 

 tion that the appraisal is to be made by a party having an interest in the 

 subject matter of the appraisal. 



Unless my observations of the mental processes of the Indian and of 

 his characteristic attitude toward com.munal property have been exceed- 

 ingly superficial and faulty the taking over by the United States of this 

 vast property without agreement with the Indians as to the price to be 

 paid would arouse a storm of protest that would be followed by an 

 interminable re-presentation of a claim of unjust treatment. And, con- 

 ceding for the present that such a procedure might be sustained in the 

 courts, at least as to many reservations, is this course in keeping with 

 the spirit of our institutions and in the long run will the public con- 

 science approve a course that smacks somewhat of star-chamber 

 methods? The author of the provisions in the bill, that I am informed 

 Mr. Snell introduced by request, regarding the valuation and expro- 

 priation of Indian timberlands did not, I believe, have the proper legal 

 perspective as to Indian lands. These lands are private property, held 

 in sacred trust by the United States for the benefit of the Indians. If 

 trust property is to pass into the hands of the trustee, the circumstances 

 of the transfer should be such as to repel any suggestion of a breach 

 of trust. 



In discussing the question of adequate compensation to the Indians 

 for the property taken for National Forest purposes, Mr. Sherman ven- 

 tured the remark that honesty of purpose in recognition of the equities 



