show proof of such use before the trust patents, are issued, and when the Indians prove that they are capable of managing their own land enterprises, the trust patent is superseded by a fee patent. It is apparent that this practice of the department in having patents in fee issue to Indians as fast as they show evidence of being capable of looking after their own interests has resulted in a great decrease of the amount of lands held in trust by the United States and corresponding increase in the area taxable by the state authorities.41 Three classes of cases are involved in the work on Indian allotments. First, the tribal Indian allotments; second, the applications for allotments on the public domain; third, requests for fee patents on Indian allotments which had previously been covered by trust patents.42 In 1916, three thousand trust patents and two thousand patents in fee were issued to the Indians. The latter are usually issued upon recommendation of the Office of Indian Affairs. Allotments of 160 acres may be made to the Alaskan Indians or Eskimos by authority of the act of May 17, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 194). These allotments are usually made of unsurveyed lands on the shore of some fishing ground. A representative of the Bureau of Education usually coöperates with the General Land Office in furnishing proof when the native has made a permanent home of the land. After a survey by the Land Office, a certificate is granted to the native "which declares that the land shall be deemed the homestead of the allottee and his heirs in perpetuity and shall be inalienable and non-taxable until otherwise provided by Congress." 43 41 Annual Report, 1918, pp. 49-50. 42 Ibid., 1920, p. 70. 43 Ibid., p. 71. In the preface to his compilation of Indian land laws, S. T. Bledsoe declares that "No more complicated and difficult questions are presented for the consideration of the legal profession of to-day than those arising out of the legislation prohibiting, limiting, or authorizing the alienation of allotted and inherited Indian lands." National Forests. There was so much of the spectacular and picturesque about the discovery of the Yellowstone that the national park idea was enabled to assume concrete form almost from the moment of its conception. Not so, however, with the idea to create forest reserves to conserve the nation's timber resources. For many reasons, but principally because of the stubbornly held popular idea that American forests were inexhaustible, the proposal to reserve forest lands, though advanced many years before the parks were dreamed of, did not assume definite shape until 1891. By that year the general conservation movement had gathered enough headway to secure legislation authorizing the setting aside, by executive proclamation, of appropriate portions of the public domain as forest reserves (26 Stat. L., 1103). The first withdrawal under this act was made by President Harrison within a month of its passage (Proclamation of March 30, 1891; 26 Stat. L., 1565). It consisted of a great area of public forest land in the Yellowstone region, thus giving to that unique area the distinction of being the birthplace of both our park and forest systems. The withdrawal prerogative was exercised at frequent intervals by President Harrison and his successors-conspicuously by President Roosevelt-so that by the close of the fiscal year 1921 the net forest withdrawals had reached the impressive total of 156,660,000 acres divided among some 150 forests. No provision for the administration or protection of the forest reserves, as they were originally called, was made until 1897, in which year legislation authorizing the creation of a protective organization under the Interior Department was enacted (Act of June 4, 1897; 30 Stat. L., 35). In the meantime an agency which had been established in 1876 for the scientific study of forestry problems in the Department of Agriculture had grown into the important Bureau 44 The authority granted to the President by this act was considerably curtailed by the acts of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. L., 1271), June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 848), and August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 497). of Forestry of that Department. This arrangement continued until 1905, when the two organizations were merged and all of the forest reserves and responsibility for their care were transferred to the Department of Agriculture (Act of February I, 1905; 33 Stat. L., 628). The name Forest Service was given to the new organization at the beginning of the following fiscal year, and two years later the forest reserves were given their present name of national forests. The administration of the national forests is under the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, but the title to the land still rests in the Department of the Interior. While the forested lands are not open to homestead entry, they still form part of the public domain, and mineral lands are subject to entry under the mining laws. Areas within the exterior boundaries of national forests which are found to be more valuable for agricultural than for forest purposes are available for settlement under the homestead laws. The land laws also provide that "in cases in which a tract covered by an unperfected bona fide claim or by a patent is included within the limits of a public forest reservation, the settler or owner thereof, may, if he desires to do so, relinquish the tract to the government, and may select in lieu thereof a tract of vacant land open to settlement, not exceeding in area the tract covered by his claim or patent." Up to within recent years the selection of these lieu lands made considerable work for the Land Office, but at present this work is not of great extent. As all changes in the boundaries of national forests and all designations of lands with the forest subject to homestead entry must be noted on the records of the General Land Office, it is essential that there be close coöperation between the two organizations. Reclamation Reservations. Lands withdrawn for the reclamation purposes fall into two classes: (1) Land permanently reserved for reservoirs, canals, dams, or other structures needed in the operation of the irrigation systems; and (2) lands to be irrigated, which are temporarily withdrawn when a project is decided upon, and which are again opened to entry when water is ready to be applied. There is always great competition for these lands. In 1918 there were approximately five thousand applications for a tract of forty thousand acres, or twenty applicants for every 160 acre homestead. During the same year, six hundred thousand acres were withdrawn for reclamation and two hundred and seventy-seven acres were restored to entry. Many lands that had been considered worthless have been reclaimed. One example is a piece of barren desert in Arizona, which after reclamation was sold at $230 an acre including land and water rights. The construction of irrigation works is done by the Reclamation Service, another branch of the Department of the Interior. The irrigation systems are operated by the Reclamation Service until such time as they are transferred to coöperative associations of water users. Settlers on irrigation projects pay the prices and fees required of all homestead entrymen and in addition water-right charges which are prorated over the entire project to cover the cost of construction, and of maintenance while the project is operated by the government. In the early days of the Reclamation Service all these charges were paid to the local land office; since 1913 the entry charges and fees have been paid to the local land offices, while the water-right charges have been paid to designated agents of the Reclamation Service. With the exception of 5 per cent of the entry charges and fees, which is paid to the several states, all the money received from lands in reclamation projects is paid into the Reclamation Fund and is available for expenditure by the Reclamation Service in the construction of additional works. The Reclamation Fund receives also proceeds from the disposal of public land in certain states with the exception of the 5 per cent paid to states and certain other deductions.45 45 For statement of moneys placed in Reclamation Fund, see page 157. Judicial Activities. Considerable latitude of judicial discretion has evolved in the General Land Office from the power of the Commissioner to perform "all executive duties appertaining to the surveying and sale of the public lands of the United States, or in anywise respecting such public lands, and, also, such as relate to private claims of land." (R. S. 453). These executive duties can not be fulfilled without the exercise of judicial discretion. Hence the General Land Office is required to adjudicate those cases 46 which involve litigation such as can only be properly determined upon testimony taken under the rules of evidence ordinarily applicable to cases of analogous character in the courts. Such litigation arises out of disputed questions of law and fact (1) between rival claimants for the same tract of land; (2) between entrymen and other claimants on the one hand and on the other contestants seeking cancellation of the existing entries or claims and a preference right to enter the lands involved; (3) upon charges preferred by our field service alleging illegality or failure to comply with the law; and (4) upon similar charges preferred by the Forest Service as to lands under their supervision. The judicial function of the Land Office therefore, has three objects. First, to ascertain whether the state, corporation or individual has complied with the law under which the claim is made, and to issue patent if found that the claimant has complied with the law. Second, to investigate and ascertain whether the state, corporation or person has failed to comply with the law under which the particular land is claimed, and to cancel or reject the particular entry application or proffer, in order to prevent the claimant from securing the patent. Third, to ascertain whether the information given to the department by an informer is sufficient to cancel or reject an application or section for certain land, and, if sufficient, to reward the informer by giving him a preference right to make application or entry upon the same land. 47 Annual Report, 1917, p. 64. 47 Pierce, The land department as an administrative tribunal, American Political Science Review, X, pp. 274-275 (1916). See also Wells, Government contests before the administrative tribunals of the land department, Ibid., 262–270. |