INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 1, Laws

Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.

Chapter 418
Sections 2 | 3 | 4

Margin Notes
Chap. 418	Sale of timber from Menominee Indian Reservation, Wis.
Chap. 418	Agent to employ Indian loggers.
Chap. 418	Compensation.
Chap. 418	Sale, etc., of logs.
Chap. 418	Indian employment.
Chap. 418	Appointment of superintendent.
Chap. 418	Compensation.
Chap. 418	Appointment of assistant superintedent.
Chap. 418	Compensation.
Chap. 418	Proviso. Limitation.
Sec. 2	Appropriation.
Sec. 2	Expenses of cutting, sale, etc.
Sec. 2	Reimbursement from first proceeds of sale.
Sec. 2	Provisos. Future annual advances for logging, authorized.
Sec. 3	Disposal and use of net proceeds of sales, etc., for benefit of Menominee.
Sec. 4	Tribal sanction to be first evidenced.
Sec. 4	Otherwise, further Indian logging prohibited.

Chapter 418
June 12, 1890. | 26 Stat., 146.

Page Images

An act to authorize the sale of timber on certain lands reserved for the use of the Menomonee tribe of Indians, in the State of Wisconsin.^a

^a The Menominee Reservation was established by the treaties of October 18, 1848, and May 12, 1854 (Vol. 2, pp., 572 and 626). It contains about 362 square miles. By the act of Feburary 2, 1871 (16 Stat., 410), the sale of six townships was authorized, dependent upon the consent of the Indians first to be secured. On March 27, 1871, the Indians protested against the sale of these lands (Green Bay Rep., p. 72). The principal source of revenue of the tribe is in the sale of timber upon the reservation, first regulated by the act of April 25, 1876 (19 Stat., 37), which is replaced and extended by the foregoing act.
Improvements of rivers through the reservation are provided by the acts of May 15, 1874 (18 Stat., 46), and July 12, 1876 (19 Stat., 89), and the construction of the Marinette and Western Railroad through it by the act of July 6, 1892 (27 Stat., 83).

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby empowered to authorize the agent of the Menomonee tribe of Indians in Wisconsin to employ at a reasonable compensation said Indians to cut all or any portion of the timber on the lands reserved for the use of said Indians in that State into logs and haul the same to the banks of the rivers; and said logs shall be scaled and advertised, and after due notice all or any part thereof sold to the highest bidder or bidders for cash, in such manner and at such time and place as the Secretary of the Interior may direct; no sale to be valid until approved by said Secretary. In case said logs can not be sold where landed on the river at what the Secretary of the Interior considers a reasonable price, he shall cause said logs to be run down the river to market, to be sold in the manner he deems for the best interest of the Indians, employing Indians at all times when in his opinion practicable and for the benefit of the Indians in doing such work; and the Secretary of the Interior may appoint a competent man to superintend these Indians while logging, and fixing the rate of his compensation. The Secretary shall appoint an assistant superintendent, who shall be a practical logger and shall have full charge and direction of such logging operations under the superintendent, and who shall receive such compensation as the Secretary of the Interior shall determine: Provided, That not exceeding twenty millions of feet of timber shall be logged and sold in any one year.

That the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the payment of the expense of cutting, banking, scaling, running, advertising, and sale thereof; also, pay of superintendent and assistant superintendent; which expenses and pay shall be re-imbursed to the Treasury of the United States from the first proceeds of the sale of timber as hereinbefore provided: And provided, That after the first year’s logging, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to advance a like amount as provided for in this bill, on the order of the Secretary of the Interior, out of any money in the Treasury belonging to said Indians for the purpose of enabling them to carry on logging as provided in this act.

That from the net proceeds of sales of said Menomonee logs shall be deducted one-fifth part, which shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the Menomonee Indians in Wisconsin, to be used under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior for the benefit of said Indians, and the residue of said proceeds shall be funded in the United States Treasury, interest on which shall be allowed said tribe annually at the rate of five per centum per annum, to be paid to the tribe per capita, or expended for their benefit under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

That this act shall be and remain inoperative until full and satisfactory evidence shall have been placed on the files of the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the sales of timber and the manner of disposing of the proceeds of same herein authorized have the sanction of the tribe, evidenced by orders of agreement taken in full council; and if the provisions of this act shall not be accepted as aforesaid no further cutting of timber shall be permitted by said Indians upon said reservation until otherwise provided.