A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 623 



50 horses, 100 cattle, or 500 sheep or a combined equivalent thereof 

 in the several classes enumerated. This regulation has been sus- 

 tained by Federal court opinion and has been rigidly enforced in both 

 the northern Great Plains region and the Intel-mountain region. 

 However, it has been violated and more or less consistently ignored 

 in the Southwest region (10, p. 12, 300) where for decades these 

 Indians have secured their main living from sheep and goats. The 

 rehabilitation and revegetation of these overgrazed lands, without 

 arousing the animosity and the violent opposition of those who 

 obtain their precarious living from these ranges, is regarded as "a 

 problem to tax the ingenuity and skill of any forester" (2, p. 1052). 



Accurate data concerning the potential revenue which can be 

 realized from Indian grazing lands are not available. It is probable, 

 however, that, under scientific management, receipts in the future 

 from grazing permits will not be less than the amount received in 

 1931. On the contrary with the return of normal economic condi- 

 tions, the systematic use of available resources, and the discon- 

 tinuance of certain unwise practices, such as the use of valuable 

 range lands by large numbers of worthless Indian ponies, a substantial 

 increase in revenue may be made. 



Immediately after the supervision of range activities was given to 

 the Forestry Branch an economic survey of the range resources and 

 grazing activities on Indian reservations was undertaken. Shortly 

 after the completion of this survey corrective measures were initiated 

 and considerable progress has been made in systematizing and im- 

 proving the management of this important Indian resource, although 

 the usual handicaps of insufficient funds and personnel exist. 



WATERSHED PROTECTION AND WATER CONSERVATION 



It is not possible to give accurate statistical data concerning the 

 importance of Indian forest lands for the protection of watersheds and 

 for water-conservation purposes. Forests on many thousands of acres 

 of Indian land may, however, properly be classified as protection forests, 

 for very frequently the headwaters of streams of immense importance 

 in irrigation projects are located within Indian reservations. 



The policy of the Indian Service both with regard to forest and 

 range lands is to administer these lands with their protective impor- 

 tance clearly in mind and to insure the maintenance of an adequate 

 ground and tree cover.^ If, however, these lands are to receive the 

 protection which their importance warrants, the uncertain tenure of 

 ownership must be removed and the Indian Service given an increased 

 personnel and more funds for protection purposes. 



WILD LIFE 



The majority of Indian reservations in the Western States are 

 situated in the more inaccessible regions, and as a result of this 

 remoteness and because on practically all reservations where Indians 

 have been accustomed for generations to rely on game and fish for 

 food, the right to hunt and fish regardless of season has been reserved 

 for them in treaties. 



Indian reservations as a rule are better stocked with wild life and 

 fish than are adjacent lands. Also, the Indian, generally speaking, 

 does not hunt or fish for sport but for food, and will not take more 

 than is needed for that purpose. 



