A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 617 



Many Americans entertain the very erroneous view that the individuals in 

 every tribe or band of Indians, to whom allotments have been made, have received 

 all that they need to enable them to achieve economic independence. This 

 view is based upon egregious misunderstanding of the facts. There are hundreds, 

 possibly thousands, of instances (greatly increased since this article was written) 

 in which Indians have been given allotments of 80 or 160 acres upon which it 

 is utterly impossible for an Indian, or a white man, to make a livelihood. Such 

 individuals must on many reservations rely upon the privilege of grazing stock 

 on tribal land to obtain a living (12, p. 619). 



On many reservations relatively large areas of forest and range 

 lands remain which if retained in tribal ownership and conservatively 

 managed will not only be a source of uninterrupted revenue to the 

 Indians but will continue to play an important and essential part in 

 the economic life of the Indians by their use of tribal grazing, hunting, 

 and fishing resources. On many reservations Indians have already 

 lost their allotments, have not been assimilated, and are dependent 

 on tribal lands of their own tribe or that of other tribes for a place 

 to live. 



The breakdown of unified ownership of tribal lands has not only 

 been accomplished through the making of allotments but has been 

 furthered by the throwing open to homestead entry by whites of 

 hundreds of thousands of acres of so-called "agricultural land" not 

 infrequently covered with timber, on which the white settlers have 

 been unable to make a living and which they have abandoned. To 

 the substantiation of this fact hundreds of abandoned shacks and 

 fairly well constructed houses now scattered over the Flathead 

 (Montana) and Colville (Washington) Reservations give mute but 

 impressive testimony. 



The checkerboard ownership of forest lands on Indian reservations 

 which has resulted from the above and the knowledge that this 

 condition is apt to become worse in the future are responsible for 

 what is perhaps the most difficult problem of forest and range adminis- 

 tration on Indian lands. Indeed the damage done must not only be 

 corrected insofar as is practicable, but if the proper management of 

 Indian forest and range lands, both from the standpoint of the 

 Indian owners and the general public, is to be made possible, prompt 

 action must be taken to prevent like occurrences on reservations where 

 large areas of forest land remain in tribal ownership. 



The time when the American Indians as a race will have acquired 

 a sufficient amount of general economic background, knowledge, and 

 ability to enable them to live successfully in a white man's world 

 without governmental aid has certainly not arrived yet. When it 

 will arrive is a matter of opinion and will depend in a large measure 

 upon how thoroughly and promptly the United States discharges its 

 all-too-evident duty to these people. Meriam and associates, after 

 a thorough investigation of the Indian problem (9, p. 746), ventured 

 this statement: 



The survey staff found no evidence that warrants a conclusion that the Govern- 

 ment of the United States can at any time in the near future relinquish its guard- 

 ianship over the property of restricted Indians secured to the Indians by Govern- 

 ment action. Although the staff believes in the transfer of the activities relating 

 to the promotion of health, education, and social and economic advancement of 

 the Indians to the several States as rapidly as the States are ready effectively 

 to perform these tasks, it is of the opinion that the guardianship of property 

 should be the last duty thus transferred if it is transferred at all. 



