August 1959
KLAMATH TRIBUNE
Page 3
(Departmental Termination Report Continued from Page 1)
them under a plan approved fu
tile Forest Service, the Secretary
of Agriculture will acquire them
for the national forest system.
Seven of the units have already
hecn advertised for hids and the
last four will he advertised Xo
veniher 1. Bid opening on the
first four is set for January JO,
I960; the second three, April 1,
1960, and the last four, August 1,
1960. These sustained-yield units
contain 617.000 acres of the
original 1,108,000 acres of tribal
and alocated (idividual Indian
Kuwncrs) lands considered as the
Klamath reservation.
This is what, has happened to
the remainder of the reservation:
1. Through sales and issuance
of fee patents .requested by the
Indian owners and the final re
moval of all restrictions on
August 13, 1958, as provided by
the termination law, all Depart
mental supervision and respon
sibility has been removed from
245,00 acres of individually al
lotted land. These lands are now
in fee simple ownership, both
Indian and non-Indian.
2. Members of the Klamath
, tribe who did not elect to with
draw set aside 145,000 acres of
the tribal lands of the reservation
for their benefit. The United
States Nation Hank of Portland
is trustee for these lands and all
Departmental responsibility has
ended.
3. Tin; 15.000 acre Klamath
Marsh is to be acquired by the
Federal Government April 1, 1961,
and will be administered by the
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and .
Wildlife of the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service as the Klamath
Forest National Wildlife Refuge.
The appraised value of this acre
age is $474,841 and the purchase
price would come from Migratory
Bird Hunting Stamp (Duck
Stamp) Act funds. (Senator Rich
ard L. Netiberger has introduced
a bill (S. 2421) to move up the
(late of the March purchase to
S'cptembcr 30, 1959, or as soon
thereafter as duck stamp funds
become available.)
4. There were 77 grazing, farm
and fringe timber units not in
cluded in the Klamath forest
which have been offered for sale
on behalf of the withdrawing
members. These totalled 86.000
acres. To date siv sales have been
held and 73 units have been sold,
68 to members lof the tribe who
pledged portions of their share of
the proceeds of the sales of tribal
property and five to non-Indians
who paid for them in cash.
"This means that in our efforts
to acquire some cash to start pay
ing off the withdrawing mem
bers of the Klamath tribe we have
accumulated only $180,209 on the
sale of about 5,000 acres of tribal
lands to private individuals,"
Foster said.
"It should be remembered,
however, that 94 tribal members
who are withdrawing have avail
ed themselves of the opportunity
to be landowners by pledging
portions of their shares to buy
some of these units."
Foster said 78 of the withdraw
ing members have pledged more
than $10,000; 15 have pledged less
than $10,000, and one remaining
member has paid $20,000 in cash
for a unit. There are more mem
bers than units involved because
some of the members have form:
ed partnerships to purchase land.
Area retained for remaing
(In Summary,: 11 sustained
yield units 617,00 acres for sale.
Individual Indian allotments
245,000 acres sold. Area retained
for remaining members 145.000
acres sold. Grazing, farm and
fringe units 86,000 sold. Klam
ath Marsh 15,000 acres govern
ment to take over.) Total of
1,108.000 acres. Original Reserva
allotted and tribal lands 1,108,
000 acres.
Foster said the 11 sustained
. yield units to be sold support. a
total volume of slightly under 3.5
billion board feet of saw timber
and nearly 1.5 million' cords of
pulp material. The 11 units vary
in size from 35,000 acres to more
than 91, OCX) acres and carry vol
umes from 69 million board feet
to more than 548 million board
feet. The realization values range
from $1,636,000 to more than
$13,345,000. with a total for the
11 of $70,352,813.
"Other facets of the Klamath
termination program should not
be minimized," Foster said.
"There are remaining problems
including the transfer of irriga
tion projects to water users, loans
to tribal members during the
period until proceeds from the
land sales become available, and
the protection and management
of the properties until sold."
Foster said that a loan program
is under way to assist the with
drawing Klatnaths who have been
accustomed to receive an average
annual per capita income of
about $1100 from the sale of res
ervation timber. MA continues
to furnish fire protection in the
forest with the cooperation of
the state forestry department
which is furnishing men in num
bers proportionate to the non
Federal forest acreages within
the reservation perimeter.
LAND SALES STAFF STUDIES GROWTH
Recent activities of personnel
at the Klamath Tribal Sales Of
fice have included measurements
and analyses of the growth of
saw-timber on the sustained yield
units being offered for sale, ac
cording to Farle Wilcox, Tribal
Sales lanager.
Wilcox said that a review of
the growth occurring in the poles
and small sawlog trees in the
reserve stands of timber on cut
over lands of the Klamath Res
ervation indicates that these
reserve stands may grow from
five to ten percent more volume
during the next 20 years than
has been previously predicted. To
substantiate this belief Witeox
and his Assistant Forester. Rieh-
i....... I..,
;i.v. ii i i Hi 1 11
which can be
ard Fopp. have
most of the time
FRINGE SALE SET
The sixth fringe unit sale of the
year, KTL-6-59, is scheduled for
Tuesday, September 29, at the
land sales office, at 10 a. m.
Caution Urged In
Personal Property Bids
The high prices being: bid by
tribal members during recent
personal property sales has
prompted Don Foster, BIA area
director, to send the following
letter dated July 30, 1959, to all
withdrawing members:
During recent s'ales of tribally
owned personal property a num
ber of withdrawing tribal mem
ber have bid prices far above the
actual true cash value of the pur
chased items. When questioned
concerning the high price which
one member had bid for a spe
cific item that member ashed
what difference it made how
much he had bid, since it didn't
cost him anything to bid. He in
dicated that all he had to do to
purchase the item was to sign his
name on a piece of paper.
All withdrawing tribal mem
bers should realize that the prices
they bid for tribal property being
sold will be deducted from the
amount which they will event
ually receive for their interest in
tribally owned property. For each
dollar which a member pledges
at the present time as payment
for an item of tribal property a
dollar will be deducted from the
total cash which he otherwise
would receive when payment to
the withdrawing members has
been completed.
I emphasize that each with
drawing member who pledges
part of his pro rata interest in
tribal property as the means of
purchasing an item of personal
property is doing much more
than just signing a piece of paper.
He is, in fact, paying for that
item with something that is
definitely of value to htm. If you
are interested in bidding in future
personal property sales, we be
lieve you will want to exercise
care to be certain that you get
your money's worth.
spared from work directly re
lated to the sale of economic
units and tribally owned personal
property in measuring the
growth of small trees on random
ly selected plots located through
out the reserve stands of the res
ervation tribal forest. The in
formatioi) derived will supple
ment growth information obtain
ed from measurements made in
larger trees by the Klamath
Ageucv Forestry staff during
and l5-.
"A private purchaser of one of
the sustained yield units presently
being offered for sale is purchas
ing the ability of that unit to
grow additional quantities of
timber," Wilcox explained. "That
is why it is so important for us
to accurately forecast how much
timber the land will grow dur
ing the next 10 or 20 years. If
our present studies can prove to
an operator that a particular unit
will grow five percent more tim
ber each year than we had pre
viously thought possible that op
erator should be willing to pay
5o more for the unit than he.
would be willing to pay on the
basis of old growth estimations.
He cautioned however, "Al
though our preliminary analysis
of the first portion of the present
study has provided the basis for
our optimistic view, we have not
completed the field work. It is
possible that the final analysis
will no present the same degree
of optimism as derived from the
first portion of our study. There
is title doubt, though, that our
forecast of future growth will be
increased by our present studies.
The only question remaining to
be answered", he said, "Is just
how much the increase will be."
KTP-4-59 Remits Told
The fourth tribal personal prop
erty sale (KTIM-59), held at
Klamath Agency Thursday,
August 27, saw a total of M)
items being put up for hid. 118 of
the items were sold to tribal
members at a total price of
$n,9Sn.50. However, in the case
of one of these items (Xo. 120), a
pick-up, there remained some
question as to whether the sale
would be validated. Fight items
were sold to non-members for a
total price of $202. The remaining
items which did not sell will be
re-advertised at a later date.
An oral auction for the sale of
building parcel It will be held on
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 195' J, at 10 a. m.
at the laud sales office. The land
sales office reports that there are
five tribal members or groups of
members qualified to bid on the
property which is located just
outside Chiloqiiin. It is an irrig
ated parcel u it Ii buildings.