4. Sales of fishing permits. 5. Leasing of tribal apartments, amusement hall, etc. 6. Transactions of Turtle Mountain Sales Association. (c) Acts as secretary-treasurer of the advisory committee and for the tribal chairman. (d) Conducts interviews with callers in the absence of the tribal chairman and keeps records of such interviews. (e) Keeps a record of surplus commodities distributed through the tribal advisory committee and renders monthly reports of same. 2. We have no agency real-estate employees who are paid in full or in part by tribal funds. 3. None; does not apply. 4. The advisory committee of the Turtle Mountain Tribe acts in the capacity of a real-estate committee with authority to approve real-estate activities, and may delegate this authority to the chairman and secretary by a resolution consisting of a majority of its members. 5. None; does not apply. 6. None; does not apply. 7. The reply to No. 4 will also apply to No. 7. The advisory committee has been carrying on this work since the passage of the act of May 24, 1940 (545 Stat. 219). This has not proved to be the most effective manner to carry on the work of the Tribal Land Enterprise. Our Tribal Land Enterprise program can be improved by more effective screening of applicants for loans and leases. Collections and delinquencies should be followed up more effectively. 8. No instructions have been issued to turn real-estate operations over to the Bureau. The Bureau has never handled tribal real-estate affairs, so it is not possible to comment on any differences. Maps submitted for the Turtle Mountain Reservation consist of the following: 1 1. Printed map of the entire area, scale 10 miles per inch. 2. A mimeographed map of the immediate area, scale one-fourth inch per mile. 3. A verifax processed copy of a map of the agency grounds, scale 8 inches per mile. This map indicated the agency reserve, reverted mission lands, relinquishment, and purchased tracts. 4. A series of township plats showing location of lands under our jurisdiction. Allotted lands are colored red, tribal lands yellow. The replies to the questions in reference to the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation were prepared at the Fort Totten Subagency. We have given all information available at that office. Fort Totten did not have a sufficient number of transactions to require reports on the tabulated forms. The Devils Lake Sioux Reservation was established by an agree ment entered into on February 19, 1867. This treaty was ratified with amendments on April 15, 1867, and proclaimed on May 2, 1867. Tribal lands on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation consist of 120 acres. Eighty acres are reverted land which belonged to a mission 1 The maps and plats submitted in items 1 to 4 for Turtle Mountain Reservation are unsuitable for reproduction in this document and are on file with the committee for refer ence purposes. and is located just north of the present agency grounds. Forty acres of other land are located on the reservation. The East Side Day School occupies 40 acres of land described as SE14SE4, sec. 13, T. 152N., R. 65W., 5th principal meridian. This land was purchased from the heirs of allotment No. 245 DLS. Deed to United States of America approved May 22, 1944. The West Side Day School occupies a site of 37.50 acres of land. The W2SW4NW4NW4 and S2W2NW4NW14, sec. 13, T. 152N, R. 66W., containing 7.50 acres, was purchased from John Guy Adams, a Devils Lake Sioux Indian. The deed to the United States of America was approved May 22, 1934. Later the E2NW1⁄4NW1⁄4 and E1⁄2W1⁄2NW14NW14, sec. 13, T. 152N., R. 66W., containing 30.00 acres, was purchased from John Guy Adams. Deed to the United States of America was approved December 5, 1941. Submarginal lands consisting of 1,424.45 acres are now under the jurisdiction of the Fort Totten Subagency office. This land was purchased under the Submarginal land purchase program. The deed to the United States of America from the Palmer Estate was approved on August 28, 1937. Under Executive Order No. 7868, issued April 15, 1938, this land was transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior for the use of the Devils Lake Sioux Indians. It is handled by the tribal land enterprise under a permit from the Department of the Interior. They in turn subpermit it to the users. Maps being submitted for the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation consist of the following: " 1. Printed map of the entire area, scale 10 miles per inch. 2. Mimeographed map of the Reservation, scale one-fourth inch per mile. 3. Verifax processed copy of Fort Totten Indian Reservation, shaded part showing allotted lands. No other maps available. We regret that this report is not as detailed or as comprehensive as we would like to submit. It differs from our usual type of report, hence it is not possible to make use of other reports to any great extent. It is our sincere hope that it will at least indicate to you in a small way the activities about which you inquire. The statistics reveal that our people are not enthusiastic about termination, and have made no rush to obtain patents in fee or otherwise remove from a trust status their reservation lands. Part of this may be accounted for because of the oil and gas leasing activities here, and the consequent hope that oil might possibly be discovered. This also holds true in regard to public domain allotment in western North Dakota and through Montana. Lastly, about 70 percent of the individual allotments are occupied by the allottee or heirs, hence, homesite factor eliminates sale requests. If there is additional material you find you need, do not hesitate to call on us with furthter inquiries. We will endeavor to supply you with the information you desire. Sincerely yours, WILLIAM MAXWELL, The maps submitted in items 1 to 3 for Devils Lake Sioux Reservation are unsuitable for reproduction in this document and are on file with the committee for reference purposes. FORT TOTTEN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE DISPOSITION AND ACQUISITION OF INDIAN LANDS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS PART I 1 through 10: Information not available at Fort Totten. 11: 120 acres in tribal ownership as of December 31, 1957. All tribal lands are in trust status, no tribal land is in fee status. 12: 52,462 acres in individual Indian ownership (trust status) at Fort Totten as of December 31, 1957. 13: Information not available at Fort Totten. 14: (a) The Devils Lake Sioux Tribe owns no undivided interest in allotments. (b) The undivided interest of non-Indians and alien Indians in most cases makes it almost an impossibility to consolidate landholdings or even to sell, on the open market, through supervised sales, on lands that have multiple heirs. (c) Information not available at Fort Totten. (d) The majority of the allotments on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation have five or more heirs. The use of the land has not become a major problem, except in isolated cases since most of the land is leased to non-Indians for farming or grazing. Agreement among heirs as to disposition is a major problem. The fact that only 7 or 8 tracts of land were sold in the past 2 years attests to this fact. More land would have been sold had all heirs consented to selling (e) Information not available at Fort Totten. PART II-FORT TOTTEN 1. "Key tracts" as the term applies on larger reservations, with grazing units are almost nonexistent on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation. This reservation has become checkerboarded with deeded land and this prohibits the use of grazing units. The reservation area is also checkerboarded with farming and grazing plots usually 40 to 80 acres in size. Generally speaking key tract would be key tract only to the non-Indian and not to the individual Indian or to the tribe. 2. None. 3. None. 4. None. 5. None. 6. None. PART III-FORT TOTTEN 1. Tribal lease clerk, salary $3,415 per annum. The incumbent in this position does clerical work in connection with the making of lease contracts on Indian allotments and lands permitted to the tribe. 2. None. 3, 4, and 5. No. 6. None. 7. The Devils Lake Sioux Tribe established a tribal land enterprise which was approved on December 2, 1947. This enterprise was established to provide clerical service which was not furnished by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at that time, due to the curtailment of funds and personnel at Fort Totten during 1947. The plan of operation for the land service enterprise provided that 1,424.45 acres of socalled submarginal lands be permitted to the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe; in addition to this all lease fees would be put to the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe. The leasing function has been in very capable hands, however, due to the fact that the incumbent is a tribal employee he is occasionally burdened with extra clerical work by the tribe. The income to the land service enterprise from lease fees brings in an average of about $2,500 per year. This pays only about two-thirds of the tribal lease clerk's salary. It becomes necessary for the tribe to supplement the other one-third from other tribal funds. The income from the submarginal lands averages about $3,000 per year. (The income from submarginal lands permitted to the tribe. $4,042.70 in 1956. Income from lease fees $2,660.28 in 1956.) The leasing function could probably be handled better if the incumbent were a Federal employee. Under these circumstances he would be able to devote all of his time to land work. 8. It was recommended at one time that the leasing function at Fort Totten be taken over by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a Federal lease clerk position be established, however, this has not materialized. |