Cover Page

Contents

Preface
Letter

SECTION I

Orientation
Summary

SECTION II

History
Needs
Geography
Historic Sites
Competitors
Economic Aspects

SECTION III

Federal Lands
State and Interstate
Local

SECTION IV

Division of Responsibility
Local
State
Federal
Circulation

SECTION V

Educational Opportunities

Office of Indian Affairs

Functions.—The Office of Indian Affairs is charged with the administration of all matters relating to the Indians while they remain on the reservations set aside for them. It has recently acquired several new functions, as regards Indian land administration, through emergency legislation or through the Wheeler-Howard Act of June 18, 1934. It has received allotments for subsistence homesteads and for submarginal-land purchases. Under the Wheeler-Howard Act it must plan land purchases for landless Indians of $2,000,000 yearly; and it must map out sustained-yield forest units for forest lands acquired under that program as well as for the large acreages it has been administering trust under earlier legislation. It must everywhere set up programs of economic land development by Indians. All these new functions will require special surveys on a far larger scale than is possible at present.³⁰

---

³⁰ National Resources Board, op. cit., p. 36.

---

Lands Administered.—The net areas of the public domain which have been set aside as Indian reservations (1934) comprise 48,131,000 acres.

The total area of allotted and unallotted lands of Indian reservations in 1929 was as follows:

The Indian Service encourages beneficial recreational activities of the Indians. Games and other forms of recreation are important in the social development of the Indian children, and also of the adults.

The Indian reservations are set aside primarily for the benefit of the Indians. The reservations are their homes and are used for agriculture and for the grazing of livestock. The recreational use by the Indians is one of many secondary objectives.

The general public has no claim to any use of the Indian reservations conflicting or interfering with the use of the lands by the Indians. In some cases hunting and fishing are reserved for the sole use of the Indians. In most of the reservations visitors are welcome, and the Indians benefit from the sales of their handicraft to visitors and from other revenue derived from them. There are some recreational uses which the public may enjoy on Indian reservations, such as motoring and a limited amount of camping. Some ceremonial dances which were originally held by the Indians for themselves are now held for the public, and from this source the Indians derive considerable revenue.

In general, the Indian reservations do not offer a field for recreational use by the general public, except under such provisions as may be permitted by the Indian Service.

Many people are keenly interested in the Indians, their traditions and folklore, their art, their handicraft, and their mode of life. To these people, a visit to an Indian reservation is intensely interesting. Many of the reservations are highly scenic in character and present a combination of features fascinating to the visitor. For example, the great Navajo Reservation in Arizona contains outstanding scenic features, such as Monument Valley, a desertlike area with great sandstone monoliths rising from a flat surface. Then there is exceptional archeological interest in the reservation, as for example, the ruins of Keet Seel and Betatakin (Navajo National Monument). The reservation is dominated by Navajo Mountain, the sacred mountain of the Navajos, which forms a conspicuous landmark for a large area. Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto (Canyon de Chelly National Monument), rich in both scenic and archeologic interest, are in the Navajo Reservation, as is also the remarkable Rainbow Bridge (Rainbow Bridge National Monument).

The Indian pueblos near Santa Fe, such as Taos, with its large, many-storied pueblos, are a great attraction to visitors. Puye, with its important archeological remains, draws many visitors each year.

Some of the pueblos, such as Acoma, "The City of the Sky", the Hopi villages, and the Zuni pueblos, combine archeology, history, scenery, and ethnology in their strong appeal to visitors.

Palm Canyon in Riverside County, Calif., on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, has the finest groves of native palms to be found in the Southwest.

Other reservations have features of outstanding interest which could be made objectives of national recreational travel, if it proves to be in the interest of the Indians to feature them for this purpose.

Continued >>>

Last Modified: Fri, Sep. 5, 2003 10:32:22 am PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/recreational_use/chap3-1d.htm