surveyed. The tribe did not own any lands-in-fee as of July 1, 1947. 2. On July 1, 1947, Navajo individual trust allotments totaled 665,259 acres. 3. For the period July 1, 1947, through June 30, 1957, there were no tribal lands disposed of. On individual allotted lands there was 1 fee patent in fiscal 1956; 1 order removing restrictions in fiscal 1954; 2 fee patents by partition in fiscal 1951; sales to other Indians in trust, 2 in fiscal 1948, 1 in fiscal 1949, and 1 in fiscal 1951; sales to non-Indians in fee status, 14 in fiscal 1952 and 4 in fiscal 1953. 4. The fee patent issued in fiscal year 1956 for 160 acres was for a Catawba Indian and not listed under Navajo landholdings. Removal of restrictions on 40 acres in fiscal year 1954. Fee patents by partition on 160 acres in fiscal year 1951. Sales to other Indians in trust 319 acres in fiscal year 1948; 40 acres in fiscal year 1949, and 160 acres in fiscal year 1952. Sales to non-Indians in fee status 2,699 acres in fiscal year 1952, and 640 acres in fiscal year 1953. The foregoing amounted to a total reduction in Navajo trust allotments of 3,639 acres. 5. Breakdown of transactions already given under No. 3 above. 6. Acreage breakdown already given under No. 4 above. 7. No individual Indian lands acquired from fiscal 1947 through 1957. The Navajo Tribe made 1 fee purchase of lands in fiscal 1953 totaling 11,563 acres; 1 fee purchase in fiscal 1956 totaling 100 acres, and 1 fee purchase in fiscal 1957 totaling 99,017 acres. Also in fiscal 1957 the tribe made 2 purchases of lands held in trust, 1 purchase from the Pueblo of Pojaoaque totaling 29,726 acres, and the other from the Pueblo of San Lorenzo totaling 26,726 acres. All lands in the foregoing purchases are classified as nonirrigable grazing in character. 8, 9, and 10. Answered per No. 7 above. 11. Total acreage owned by the Navajo Tribe on December 31, 1957, amounted to 14,643,721 acres, of which 14,533,041 acres are held in trust by the United States and 110,680 acres owned in fee by the tribe. 12. There were 661,620 acres of trust-allotted land owned by individual Navajos on December 31, 1957. 13. From the foregoing it will be noted that the Navajo Tribe is not disposing of any of its lands. On the contrary, the tribe is interested in acquiring additional lands for its members due to the overpopulation of the reservation. The tribe has set aside $2 million of its tribal funds for land-acquisition purposes. A copy of Advisory Committee Resolution No. ACJ-8-55, dated January 11, 1955, concerning policy of the Navajo Tribe on acquisition of lands, is attached hereto. It will also be noted that there have been few disposals of individually owned trust-allotted lands. The few sales to non-Indians were in an isolated area and were not used or occupied by the Indians. 14. Heirship or multiple-ownership problem: (a) No individual interests owned by the tribe. (b) Undivided interests owned by non-Indians and alien Indians are not a problem up to the present time since there are very few cases of this nature in the Navajo country. (c) The Navajos are not under the Indian Reorganization Act. (d) Over half of the Navajo trust-allotted lands are in probate status at the present time, and within the next 10 years or so it is expected that more than 75 percent will be in probate status. Some probate cases now involve up to 100 heirs to a single allotment and the common denominator for some shares runs into the billionths. Conse quently, as time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult and time consuming to consummate leases or to dispose of allotted lands for any purpose. (e) No use of the Secretary's power to sell heirship lands has been made on the Navajo. The tribe is becoming interested in purchasing some inherited allotments but has not actually purchased any to date, and has not shown any particular enthusiasm toward a large-scalepurchase program of allotted lands. In many cases the allotments are under oil and gas lease or other mineral lease or having lease possibilities and, so long as there is some lease revenue or a possibility thereof, the allottees and/or heirs of allottees are not interested in selling their land. If sales are made to the tribe or others, the Indians will reserve mineral rights, which is understandable. However, sales of this nature will merely tend to further complicate an already complicated land-title situation. PART II-NAVAJO 1. How much acreage and how many tracts have been sold that the tribe, individual Indian owners, or the Bureau have alleged were key tracts? None. 2. How much acreage and how many tracts alleged by the tribe or individual Indian owners to be key tracts were determined by Bureau officials not to be key tracts? None. 3. How much acreage and how many tracts alleged by the tribe to be key tracts were sold to the tribe or individual Indian owners! None. 4. How much acreage and how many tracts alleged by the tribe to be key tracts were sold to non-Indians? None. 5. If there were sales of key tracts to non-Indians, discuss the effect that such sales have had on the use of Indian land remaining in Indian ownership? Since no such sales were made, no answer is required for this question. 6. No fee lands have been acquired in trust or restricted status by individual Indians. The three land purchases made by the tribe of fee lands remain in fee status. These are explained briefly as follows: (a) The Brown and Best Ranch purchase involved 99,017 acres of fee lands located near the south boundary of the Navaho Reservation in Arizona, and is used by the tribe as a pasture for tribally owned rams numbering 1,250 head, and on a rental basis for 250 head of cattle owned by individual Navahos. (b) The 11,562 acres purchased in fee from Glascock and Wilson involved checkerboarded sections of land north of Gallup, N. Mex., in an Indian allotted area and created a reasonably solid block of Indian owned and controlled grazing land in the particular area involved. (c) The 100-acre tract of land purchased in fee from the United States Bureau of Land Management is located adjacent to the Santa Fe Railroad and United States Highway No. 66, approximately 8 miles east of Gallup, N. Mex., and is valuable chiefly for business purposes, and was purchased for that reason. (d) Existing law will not authorize the tribe to acquire fee lands and to hold them in trust if the lands are located outside the exterior boundaries of the reservation. In other words, purchases of fee lands by the tribe not located within the reservation boundaries remain in a fee status. PART III-NAVAJO Assumption of responsibility for real estate activities by the Navajo Tribe. 1. The tribe is currently furnishing three Navajo employees for work in the Navajo Agency Branch of Realty and pays their salaries out of tribal funds as follows: 1 realty records supervisor- 1 realty records file clerk.. 1 clerk-stenographer, Minerals Section____ Total Per annum $4,200 3, 200 3, 200 10, 600 2. In addition to the above the tribe is paying the salaries of the following listed civil-service employees in the Branch of Realty: 1 realty assistant, Minerals Leasing Section.. 1 general clerk-typist_‒‒ 1 general clerk-typist__‒‒‒ Total $5, 575.00 4, 524. 00 3, 925. 00 3,670.00 17, 694. 00 The tribe has also expended some $35,000 in modernizing the realty files along the Remington Rand system including new steel fireproof filing cabinets and other equipment. 3. The tribe in its own personnel organization has a land use and survey office manned by six tribal employees including the supervisor of the office, 1 clerk-typist, 1 draftsman, 2 field investigators, and 1 title examiner. The duties of this office include investigations and recommendations to tribal authorities on land acquisition and/or disposal. Various types of leases, rights-of-way applications, land damage claims, trespass cases, boundary disputes, titles, etc. The tribe also has three persons on its payroll working on the tribes' land claim against the United States. The above land use and survey office performs a needed service for the tribe in various types of land investigations designed to protect the tribal interest, and which in many cases cannot be performed by the Bureau due to lack of personnel. 4. The above land use and survey office works closely with the resources committee and the advisory committee, both of whom are committees of the Navajo Tribal Council and are concerned with realty activities as well as other land resources of the tribe. The advisory committee of the tribal council has delegated authority to approve certain types of real estate activities although most major activities must be referred to the general tribal council for final approval. 5. The advisory committee, the resources committee, and the land use and survey office all furnish advice and assistance to the tribal council on tribal real-estate activities. 6. The tribe has a tribal mining department with a mining engineer in charge, 1 clerk-stenographer, 1 draftsman, and 1 mining engineer for field investigations. This organization advises the tribal council, the advisory committee, and the resources committee on all mineral activities on tribal lands other than oil and gas. Two geologists are also being hired by the tribal mining department to carry out a study of potential uranium and other minerals, other than oil and gas, in the Navajo Reservation. On oil and gas matters the tribe has an oil and gas consultant, and a geologist who make recommendations to the tribe relative to oil and gas leasing and the acceptance and/or rejection of bids for such leases. The tribe has also hired an oil and gas liaison officer whose duties are to investigate land damages caused by oil and gas development and geophiyscal operations by oil companies in the reservation. This employee works in cooperation with the Indian Bureau and the United States Geological Survey on land damage investigations. 7. Tribal land enterprises: (a) The Navajo Tribal farm training program at Shiprock, N. Mex., was conceived and developed to give Navajo individuals and families on-the-job training as well as classroom education in practical modern irrigation farming. The program includes 1,200 acres of irrigated farmland served with water from the Hogback irrigation project. Housing and classroom facilities, equipment, including modern farm tractors and machinery, are provided by the tribe. A very capable manager and an assistant, as well as two home demonstration assistants are employed by the tribe to carry out the program. The Bureau of Indian Affairs cooperates in providing an educational specialist for educational activities, and technicians of the Branch of Land Operations assist in technical farming phases of the program. Presently the program is geared to graduate 24 trained farmers per year. These farmers are being trained to utilize the farmlands now in developmental stages under the Hogback irrigation project and the proposed 1,100 farm tracts of the Navajo project presently in the planning stages. (b) A private ranch property in Apache County, Ariz., located 15 miles south of the south boundary of the reservation and consisting of approximately 99,000 acres fee patent range land was purchased late in 1956 by the Navajo Tribe under their land-acquisition program. This property, known as the Bar N Ranch, is operated as a tribal enterprise by a manager with four employees under a specific management plan and budget to aid in improving the quality of Navajo sheep and wool and as a boarding area to graze cattle of individual Navajo stockmen from reservation areas short of forage. The owners pay monthly grazing and management fees. The tribe's several small bands of improved rams were moved from various locations on the reservation to the ranch property early in 1957. At present 1,250 high-quality rams are on the property. Each year during the breeding season these rams are rented to Navajo sheepmen to improve the quality of marketable wool and lambs. Experiences gained in the management of this property are believed to be highly important to Navajo people in the management of other similar properties to be acquired in the future as well as that of the reservation itself. 8. Has the tribe or the area office been instructed to turn real estate operations over to the Bureau? The above question is somewhat ambiguous. However, the realestate enterprises of the tribe reported under question 7 above are in their infancy and we are, of course, optimistic that they will be suc cessful. There is no thought of turning such projects back to the Bureau for management. In fact, the tribe is desirous and is financially able to enter into other enterprises as the opportunity arises and is able to employ top grade managers and personnel for such operations as it may enter into in the future. As the tribe gains experience in the management of its resources there is no reason to fear its gradual assumption of total management functions, provided, that management is protected from politics. Bureau personnel are interested in seeing that tribal projects have a sound basis and have a reasonable chance for success, and are available at all times for friendly advice and assistance when called upon by tribal officials. H. B. COLLIFLOWER, Acting General Superintendent. RESOLUTION No. ACJ-8-55 oF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE NAVAJO TRIBAL COUNCIL POLICY OF THE NAVAJO TRIBE ON ACQUISITION OF LANDS A. General principles 1. The tribe's major purposes in acquiring new lands shall be(a) To consolidate Indian holdings in checkerboard areas wherever the best interests of the Navajos residing in the area and the welfare of the tribe are served thereby; (b) To provide grazing lands for members of the tribe who do not have grazing permits. (c) To provide additional or substitute lands for members of the tribe who reside in overcrowded areas of the reservation. (d) To relieve reservation land resources from excessive use. (e) To provide land necessary for approved tribal enterprises. 2. The tribe may acquire new lands by exchange, gift, or purchase. 3. The tribal resources committee is authorized and directed(a) To formulate a land-acquisition program; (b) To develop a code of use for land acquired; and 4. It is the policy of the tribe to manage agricultural and range lands in accordance with principles of sound and practical use, developing such lands to their maximum and preventing practices which damage or deteriorate them. 5. Except as the United States may otherwise determine, the tribe shall in acquiring unrestricted lands, assume responsibility for the payment of taxes lawfully imposed, and of all established fees for the use of federally or State owned lands. 6. Land acquisition includes agricultural and range lands and land for business or industrial purposes. 7. It is the intention of the tribe to expend up to $2 million for land acquisition, fiscal years 1954-59, from funds in the Treasury of the United States, derived from the sale of nonrenewable capital assets, principally oil and gas. (The amount $2 million is tentative for the time being and is subject to change at a later date.) 8. The tribal resources committee is authorized and directed to consider and investigate land-acquisition proposals and to mort its |