26 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



clear the land entirely, and with no reference to future re- 

 growth. By ' 'diminished reservations" is meant the land 

 which the Indians did not cede by the existing treaty. 

 Here is a most excellent opportunity for the government 

 to put in practice good forestry methods. And if the In- 

 terior Department and our Minnesota delegations in Con- 

 gress are truly friendly to forestry, they will see that this 

 policy is adopted. The friends of forestry strongly object 

 to having the pine on the diminished Indian reservations 

 consumed under the ordinary destructive methods of lum- 

 bering without regard to forest regeneration. A bill, how- 

 ever (H. R. 998), has been favorably reported by the 

 Committee on Indian Affairs in the United States House 

 of Representatives which authorizes the cutting annually 

 of 10,000,000 feet on each of the Red Lake and White 

 Earth "diminished" reservations, under the supervision 

 of the United States Indian Agent. The report of the 

 committee estimates that there are 800,000,000 feet of 

 pine on the two reservations. As soon as I heard of this 

 bill and report I sent a recommendation to the introducer 

 of the bill, also to the Interior Department, that the bill 

 be amended so as to have the cutting of the pine done 

 under the supervision of the United States Division of 

 Forestry, but, finding that the Interior Department was 

 averse to such an amendment, I then recommended that 

 the bill be amended by striking out the clause authorizing 

 the cutting to be done under the supervision of the Indian 

 Agent and by inserting the following at the end of the 

 second section: 



Provided, however, that the cutting, banking and handling of 

 said timber shall be done under the supervision of a competent 

 forester, or foresters, to be employed by the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior solely with reference to their fitness and without regard to 

 party affiliation. 



The disposal of the pine forests in Minnesota has for 

 fifty years been lavish and without regard to reproduction. 



