COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF INDIAN TRUST LANDS, 1947-57 To: Hon. James E. Murray, and Insular Affairs. From: Indian Affairs. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Washington, D. C., July 14, 1958. chairman, Senate Committee on Interior Subject: Comparative statistics of Indian trust lands, 1947-57. As requested in your letter of June 24, 1958, the returns were analyzed with the objective of answering three specific questions: (1) Has the total acreage of tribal fee, tribal trust, and individual trust lands increased or decreased during the 10-year period under study (July 1, 1947, to December 31, 1957) ? (2) Where has the decrease in individual or allotted land holdings been most notable? (3) Where has the increase in tribal land holdings been most notable? In analyzing the returns several problems were encountered, possibly due to misinterpretation of the questions. Several returns included individual lands in that part of the question asking for tribal acreage held in trust. All returns were checked for this and when necessary adjusted accordingly. An example of other problems encountered is represented in the return from San Carlos. The San Carlos return states that "No land was in tribal ownership on July 1, 1947" and that "No land was in tribal ownership on December 31, 1957." Knowing that San Carlos had more than 1 million acres of tribal land, this researcher called the Bureau of Indian Affairs to double-check the return, and found that the San Carlos Tribe owned 1,622,484 acres of land as of 1957. Although the Bureau could not supply statistics for 1947, a perusal of the return brought forth the following statement: "There have been no transactions disposing of tribal or individually owned lands since July 1, 1947." Assuming that this statement was correct, we therefore entered the same acreage for July 1, 1947, as we had been given for December 1957. Although it was originally intended to consider only tribal and individual trust lands, an examination of the returns indicated there would be some difficulty in segregating tribal fee statistics, therefore the tribal fee lands were included in the study. INDIAN LANDS (QUESTION 1) As of July 1, 1947,1 there were 54,584,713.764 acres of tribal fee, tribal trust, and individual trust lands owned by American Indians. The returns indicate that as of December 31, 1957, there were 52,490,803.796 acres of tribal fee, tribal trust, and individual trust lands owned by the American Indians. These figures show a decrease of land in these categories of 2,093,909.968 acres over the 10-year period studied (July 1, 1947, to December 31, 1957). INDIVIDUAL TRUST LANDS (QUESTION 2) On July 1, 1947, there were 15,898,640.844 acres of individual trust lands owned by American Indians, according to the returns. Statistics for December 31, 1957, indicate that at that time there were 12,591,423.466 acres of individual trust lands owned by the American Indians. These figures show a decrease of land in this category of 3,307,217.378 over the 10-year period studied (July 1, 1947, to December 31, 1957). The following list indicates, in the order of greatest reductions, each agency and its relative position. 1. Five Civilized Tribes-- 438, 163. 000 23. Yakima 2. Crow_ 3. Rosebud. 4. Fort Peck_ 5. Blackfeet 6. Pine Ridge_ 7. Fort Berthold_. 8. Standing Rock. 9. Flathead_ 10. Cheyenne River____. 13. Kiowa 14. Fort Belknap.. 15. Minnesota Chippewa-16. Pierre 17. Jicarilla_ 18. Great Lakes___. 19. Cheyenne-Arapahoe_20. Colville 21. Warm Springs---. 22. Northern Idaho‒‒‒‒‒‒‒ 360, 837. 000 24. Uintah and Ouray_- Acreage decrease 15, 082.000 13,846. 620 13, 609. 000 12, 253. 870 11, 728. 710 5,583. 270 4,886. 220 3,639.000 3, 121. 000 2,800. 000 2,542. 000 2, 190. 010 1, 480. 000 832. 010 75.000 21. 940 1 In a few isolated cases statistics were not available for 1947. We have footnoted each such case. TRIBAL FEE AND TRUST LANDS (QUESTION 3) The returns indicate that on July 1, 1947, there were 38,686,072.920 acres of tribal trust and tribal fee lands. On December 31, 1957, there were 39,899,380.330 acres of land in the same category, indicating an increase of 1,213,307.410 acres. The following list, in the order of greatest increases, gives the relative position of each agency, based on these figures. Decreased tribal landholdings (in the order of the greatest de The enclosed tables are (1) a composite of area office statistics; (2) a final summary giving grand total statistics; and (3-11) statistical summaries by area office listing each agency separately. STEPHEN A. LANGONE. |