Reporter's Statement of the Case

chantable pine timber on any tract reserved for forestry purposes, except the 10 sections, islands, and points, was removed, such tract was declared to, "without further act, resolution, or proclamation, forthwith become and be part of a forest reserve, the same as though set apart by proclamation of the President in accordance with the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, and subsequent laws amending and supplementing the same, and shall be managed and protected in accordance with their provisions and the rules and regulations made and to be made in furtherance thereof."

8. The act of May 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 268) created a national forest in the State of Minnesota, described by metes and bounds. Among the lands so included within the reserve were a part of the 200,000 acres authorized by section 2 of the act of June 27, 1902, to be selected by the Forester of the Department of Agriculture, and the ten sections, islands and points, specifically referred to in that Act, and also "one hundred and sixty acres at the extremity of Sugar Point, on Leech Lake, and the peninsula known as Pine Point, on which the new Leech Lake Agency is now located,

Section 2 of the act provided:

The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to proceed with the sale of the merchantable pine timber upon the above described land outside of said ten sections and said islands and points, in conformity with the provisions of said Act above entitled, and reserving ten per centum of such timber from sale, said ten per centum to be designated by the Forester of the United States Department of Agriculture; and as to the timber upon said ten sections and said islands and points, the said Forester is authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe from time to time to sell and dispose of so much of the standing timber thereon as he may deem wise and advisable in the conduct of a National Forest: Provided, That a commission of three persons shall at once be appointed, consisting of one person to be designated by the President, one by the Secretary of the Interior, and one by a general council of the Indians of the Winnibigoshish, Cass Lake, Chippewas of the Mississippi Reservation,

Reporter's Statement of the Case and Leech Lake Reservation to be held under the direction of the Agent at Leech Lake Indian Agency; and said commissioners shall proceed forthwith to appraise the value of the five per centum of timber heretofore reserved from sale by the provisions of said Act entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota,' approved January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the ten per centum hereafter reserved under the provisions of this Act, and the timber upon said ten sections and upon the unappropriated lands on said islands and points, and shall ascertain the acreage of actual land included under the provision of this Act and to the estimated value of said five per centum of timber reserved under the said Act entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota," " approved January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the ten per centum reserved under this Act and the estimated value of timber upon said ten sections and upon the unappropriated lands on said islands and points, to the sum of the values of the timber so estimated shall add an amount equal to one dollar and twenty-five cents for each and every acre of land not otherwise appropriated which they find covered by the provisions of this Act, and shall certify the same to the Secretary of the Interior. The Indians designated in this section, acting through a representative who shall serve without compensation, to be named by them at the time of their appointment of the commissioner herein, shall have sixty days in which to appeal to the President of the United States from the findings of said commissioners, as certified to the Secretary of the Interior. At the end of said sixty days, if no appeal has been taken or if an appeal has been taken, then, upon the determination thereof by the President, the Secretary of the Interior shall certify the amount found by said commissioners, or if modified by the President the amount determined by him, to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall thereupon place such amount to the credit of all the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota as a part of the permanent fund of said "All of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota" provided for in an Act of Congress entitled "An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota," approved January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and

Reporter's Statement of the Case

eighty-nine, and the Acts supplementary thereto, and the amounts so certified to the Secretary of the Treasury shall draw interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, pursuant to the terms of said Acts.

Section 3 authorized Indians who had received allotments within the limits of the national forest, or their heirs, to relinquish their allotments within the forest area and to select a like quantity of unappropriated, unreserved land within the limits of any of the ceded lands in Minnesota outside of the forest reserve, and the Secretary of the Interior, upon request of the Department of Agriculture, was authorized to purchase relinquishments from said Indians or their heirs, and to pay for the same from moneys received from the sale of timber from the forest reserve; all lands so relinquished to become a part of the forest reserve.

SEC. 5.

That all moneys received from the sale of timber from any of the lands set aside by this Act for a National Forest, prior to the appraisal herein provided for, including all moneys received for timber under sales made by the Secretary of the Interior as authorized by existing laws and section two of this Act, shall be placed to the credit of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, as provided for in an Act of Congress entitled "An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota," approved January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine; and the Acts supplementary thereto, and shall draw interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, pursuant to the terms of said Acts; and after said appraisal the National Forest hereby created, as above described, shall be subject to all general laws and regulations from time to time governing national forests, so far as said laws and regulations may be applicable thereto.

SEC. 6:

That the commissioners provided for herein shall receive a compensation of ten dollars per day each for each and every day actually spent upon the work herein provided for, which shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, and no commissioner shall be paid for more than ten days' service.

109870-39-c.c.-vol. 87-3

Reporter's Statement of the Case

Section 8 contains a declaration that defendant, as Trustee, will dispose of all the ceded lands and timber thereon and deposit the proceeds as provided in the acts of January 14, 1889, June 27, 1902, and this Act.

9. The commission authorized in Section 2 of the act of May 23, 1908, to be "at once" appointed was not appointed until December 18, 1922.

Under date of January 19, 1922, the Solicitor for the Department of Agriculture in a written opinion held, that payment could only be made for the lands and timber reserved under the acts of June 27, 1902, and May 23, 1908, as provided in the latter Act; that under said Act all timber of value on the 10 sections, islands and points should be taken into consideration and appraised "at its value as of the time of the appraisal"; that only the 5 and 10% of the merchantable white and Norway pine reserved on the remaining lands included in the forest reserve were to be appraised, and the value thereof should be that "existing at the time of the appraisal." This opinion of the Solicitor for the Department of Agriculture was approved by the Solicitor for the Department of the Interior.

By letter dated July 29, 1922, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs designated a committee consisting of a representative of the Indian Office, a representative of the United States Forest Service, and a Chippewa Indian, an experienced lumberman then in the employ of the United States, to make a preliminary investigation of the claims, both "legal and equitable", of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota against the United States for the land and timber authorized to be taken by the act of May 23, 1908. This committee was particularly instructed to:

1. Ascertain the exact Forest area or acres of land to be paid for at $1.25 per acre.

2. Ascertain the value of the timber reserved from cutting upon lands designated as "the Ten Sections, islands and points."

3. Ascertain the value of the so-called five per cent of timber left standing for reforestation purposes under the act of June 27, 1902 (32 Stat., 400), and of the ten per cent of tim

Reporter's Statement of the Case

ber retained for reforestation under the act of May 23, 1908 (35 Stat., 268).

4. Ascertain the value of the jack pine and hardwood timber and the white and Norway pine below 10" in diameter for which the Indians by opinion of January 19, 1922, rendered by the Solicitor for the Department of Agriculture and concurred in by the Solicitor for the Department of the Interior, are not entitled to compensation under the law (act of May 23, 1908).

Under date of November 17, 1922, the committee filed its report dated November 14, 1922.

10. Thereafter the identical three persons named in the letter of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated July 29, 1922, to make the preliminary investigation were regularly appointed and commissioned members of a commission to carry out the provisions of the act of May 23, 1908, and advised thereof in official letters dated December 15 and 18, 1922.

The commission, as such, made no investigation in the field, and used as the basis for its report and award the report of the committee appointed by the Commissioner's letter of July 29, 1922, and under date of January 16, 1923, submitted its report and award to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

In the report the commission correctly found and reported that the boundaries of the Minnesota National Forest as defined by the act of May 23, 1908, embraced a total of 312,659.42 acres of land. Of this acreage, a total of 121,714.31 acres was embraced in State swamp land selections, individual Indian allotments and patented town sites which constituted no part of the national forest. The deduction of 121,714.31 acres from the total land area within the national forest boundaries left a remainder of 190,944.93 acres which were reserved and appropriated under the act of May 23, 1908, for national forest purposes. Said 190,944.93 acres, when appropriated and reserved for national forest purposes under the act, were reasonably worth an average of $1.25 per acre or $238,681.16 in addition to the value of any timber standing thereon.