A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 615 



the general objective sought in the allotting of land to individual 

 Indians, that the original intention was to allot only agricultural 

 land. By implication the General Allotment Act of 1887 did not 

 include timberland. However, upon reservations where there was 

 an insufficiency of agricultural land to supply all members of the 

 tribe with allotments, where the better agricultural land was covered 

 with timber, where practically all the land was forested, or where the 

 allotment was made under special acts, timberlands have been 

 allotted. In addition to this, decisions of the courts (unfortunate 

 from the standpoint of timber conservation and sustained yield forest 

 management) have forced the allotting of many thousands of acres of 

 timberland to individual Indians. A notable example is the Quinaielt 

 Keservation in Washington. Recent legislation has been passed (act 

 of May 21, 1928), authorizing the allotment of grazing lands on the 

 Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming from which no Indian (or white) 

 can wrest a living. 



Individual Indian allotments soon pass out of governmental 

 control in either of two ways : 



1. By the issuance of fee patents or certificates of competency to 

 the allottees or their heirs, permitting their sale by the individual. 



The records show that the lands of a vast majority of Indians who have been 

 given absolute control of their allotments have passed from Indian ownership in 

 various ways by sale for small values, through unredeemed mortgages, and in 

 some instances by tax deeds (13, p. 10). 



2. Through outright sales, made to private individuals or corpora- 

 tions by the Government for and in behalf of the allottees or their 

 heirs. The heirship of an Indian allotment frequently becomes so 

 badly involved that the shares of each heir are of small value and the 

 tangled records can best be cleared by an outright sale of the land. 



The policy of the Indian Service with regard to the issuance of fee 

 patents and certificates of competency, and the sale of allotments has 

 varied greatly since 1900 and has had a marked effect on the formula- 

 tion and canying out of forest policies on these lands. Under provi- 

 sions of the acts of May 8, 1906 (34 St-at.L., 182) and June 25, 1910 

 (36 Stat.L., 855) fee patents were issued under a rather conservative 

 policy, until about 1916, when " competency commissions'* were 

 appointed which recommended the issuance of fee patents to large 

 numbers of "competent" Indians. 



In 1920, the Commissioner (14, p. 49) reported: 



Since the Declaration of Policy in 1917 (patents in fee issued to Indians of one 

 half or less Indian blood without any further proof of competency), 17,176 fee 

 patents have been issued which is nearly double the number issued in the 10 

 years preceding. 



The rather liberal policy followed from 1915 to 1920 with regard to 

 the issuance of fee patents was made more conservative in 1921. 

 In 1922 the Commissioner stated (15, p. 15): 



A stricter policy has been followed in issuing patents to Indians on the ground 

 of competency, as seemed to be required in order to more fully protect their 

 interests. 



In his report for the fiscal year 1926, the Commissioner stated 

 (IS, p. 10): 



For the past 5 years a conservative policy has been pursued in granting fee 

 titles to individual Indians * * *. 



168342 33 vol. 1 40 



