Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



estimated value of $2,158., was granted 

 for local use without charge. Other 

 uses of these public lands included 

 grazing, mineral production, wildlife 

 production, and recreation. 



THE LANDS OF THE AMERICAN 



INDIAN Sj in the form of individual 

 trust allotments, tribal lands, and Fed- 

 eral lands dedicated to Indian use, 

 aggregate more than 56.5 million acres. 

 The area comprises a large number of 

 homestead allotments, approximately 

 160 acres each, on the public domain, 

 most of which were made to individual 

 Indians in accordance with the act of 

 July 4, 1884 (23 Stat. 76, 96), and of 

 reservations, several of more than a 

 million acres, which were established 

 in accordance with treaties with In- 

 dians and by Executive orders. A sub- 

 stantial part of the land within many 

 of the reservations has been allotted to 

 individual Indians in tracts that us- 

 ually vary from 80 to 160 acres. The 

 title to the homestead allotments and 

 to allotments within reservations is 

 usually held in trust by the United 

 States for the individual owners, al- 

 though, in some instances, the title to al- 

 lotted lands within reservations passed 

 to the owners but with restrictions 

 against alienation. The basic title or 

 fee to all unallotted tribal lands is held 

 by the United States. Indian lands are 

 distributed throughout 26 States, but 

 are heavily concentrated in the West. 



Of the Indian lands, more than 16 

 million acres is classed as forest and 

 woodland; of that area, about 6.6 mil- 

 lion acres (or 40 percent) is presently 

 classed as commercial forest land ca- 

 pable of producing continuous crops of 

 salable forest products. The remaining 

 acreage is valuable for cordwood, 

 posts, poles, nuts, fruits, and similar 

 products for local use, and for forage, 

 for watersheds, and as game habitat. 

 Records of the Bureau of Indian Af- 

 fairs indicate that the commercial 

 forest land bears about 27.6 billion 

 board feet of merchantable timber. 



Because of wide geographical dis- 

 tribution, Indian forest lands include 



a variety of forest types. The hard- 

 woods of the Appalachian Mountains, 

 the palm and cypress of Florida, the 

 pine-hemlock-hardwood of the Lake 

 States, the mixed-conifer stands of the 

 "Inland Empire," the fir, hemlock, 

 cedar, Douglas-fir stands of the Pacific 

 coast, and the ponderosa pine and 

 mixed-conifer types of eastern Wash- 

 ington and Oregon are all represented 

 in some degree. From the standpoint of 

 volume and industrial use, the conifer 

 forests of Oregon, Washington, Ari- 

 zona, and Montana are by far the most 

 important. These include an estimated 

 69 percent of the commercial timber- 

 land and more than 83 percent of the 

 commercial timber volume. 



The timber on the Indian lands was 

 early recognized as a valuable asset, 

 and logging of it became rather general 

 after 1890. With the development of 

 the national conservation movement 

 at the beginning of the twentieth cen- 

 tury, there came a demand for cutting 

 the timber on a conservative basis to 

 assure its perpetuation. In 1909, Con- 

 gress provided for forestry work on 

 Indian reservations, and, by the act of 

 June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 855), gave 

 comprehensive authority, under regu- 

 lations of the Secretary of the Interior, 

 for sale of timber from Indian reserva- 

 tions, and provided that proceeds from 

 such sales should be used for the bene- 

 fit of the Indians on the reservation. 



Authority was also granted for sale 

 of timber from allotments under trust 

 patents with the consent of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior. Pursuant to such 

 authority and to that in section 6 of 

 the act of 1934 (48 Stat. 984), utiliza- 

 tion of timber from Indian lands is 

 now carried out in accordance with 

 conservation policies under the direc- 

 tion of the Forestry and Grazing Divi- 

 sion of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 

 Department of the Interior. 



Forests are important in the Indian 

 economy. Only a small percentage of 

 the Indian lands are suitable for farm- 

 ing, the greater part of them being 

 chiefly valuable for forest production 

 or grazing. The forested areas furnish 



