Page images
PDF
EPUB

Mr. JOHNSON. Indians of some of the tribes in Oklahoma have not accepted this reorganization act nor are they in sympathy with it.

Mr. DODD. We are making loans from that fund to Oklahoma Indians because the original act excluded Oklahoma from certain sections; Oklahoma was included in all of the money sections of the bill.

Mr. JOHNSON. That is correct.

ADVANCEMENT TO NAVAJO TRIBE FOR MARKETING OF SURPLUS SHEEP AND GOATS

I find new language in this item; a proviso relating to sheep and goats on the Navajo Reservation, which reads:

Provided further, That not to exceed $275,000 may be advanced to the Navajo Tribe of Indians for the purchase, feeding, sale, slaughter, or other disposition of sheep, goats, and other livestock belonging to the Navajo Indians, including the erection of necessary structures, the installation of utility services, the purchase of machinery and equipment (including passenger-carrying vehicles), materials and supplies, the purchase or lease of land or buildings, salaries of employees, traveling expenses, printing, binding, and advertising, and all other necessary expenses.

Mr. COLLIER. Mr. Chairman, this is an item of great importance. I might add that it is the purpose under this provision to loan the Navajo Tribe of Indians some money to make it possible for them to market the surplus sheep and goats economically and efficiently.

Mr. RICH. What do you intend to do with that $275,000? Do you plan on building slaughterhouses and manufacturing establishments? Mr. COLLIER. There would undoubtedly be some slaughterhouse facilities constructed.

The situation is this: May I for a moment give you a picture of what they are up against down there?

Mr. JOHNSON. Go ahead, Mr. Collier.

Mr. COLLIER. I would like to explain why it is necessary.

NATURE AND CONDITION OF NAVAJO RESERVATION

Mr. COLLIER. The Navajo Reservation is a semidesert area, badly damaged by erosion.

The sheep are all of a peculiar tough type, that can run 10 miles a day in the process of getting enough to eat.

Ordinarily out in the West when you are going to market your lambs and where they have not been raised on good pasture, or fairly good pasture, it is customary to put them up and fatten them, to bring up their weight, and you get your money that way.

Now, under the conditions by which sheep and goats are raised on the Navajo Reservation, they are so scrawny that you cannot sell them to advantage. In fact you can get little or nothing for them, for it is necessary to fatten them first. And the situation now is, that being unable to sell them, or being unable to sell them for more than a nominal amount, the Navajos keep them on the range, and the range already is terribly overloaded. The range is terrifically overgrazed. As a result of the range being overgrazed, the animals are so poor on the range that the Indians do not get their money out of them and this result is due to the fact that there is no adequate marketing system, and particularly because they have no means of fattening their lambs.

Now, if there was some means of fattening the lambs, these animals could be slaughtered; and the Navajos would get the money and the sale would reduce overgrazing. The poorest of the cull stock could be canned for human consumption or for dog and cat food; and that is true likewise of the wild horses.

APPROPRIATION WOULD PROVIDE REVENUE AND PERMIT RANGE TO COME BACK

Now the purpose of this appropriation is twofold.

It is to enable the Navajos to get a revenue for the hundreds of thousands of their animals that they cannot sell now, and then it will get those hundreds of thousands of animals off the range, relieving the range, and allowing it to come back, so that the remaining stock can prosper.

It is set up as a revolving fund, and we are hopeful, in fact we believe, that it will be an economical operation and will pay out year after year.

Mr. JOHNSON. You expect to get some money back?

Mr. COLLIER. We do not know why we should not. Of course, we could not guarantee it.

Mr. RICH. How close to this Navajo Tribe do you have your slaughterhouses?

Mr. COLLIER. You must go to Phoenix or Los Angeles or El Paso. Mr. RICH. How far is that?

Mr. COLLIER. They are, roughly, 500 miles away.

Mr. RICH. They are the nearest ones?

Mr. COLLIER. Am I right on that?

Mr. COOLEY. There is Denver.

Mr. COLLIER. But Denver is still farther.

The main fact is that the packing plant would be a minor item in the outlay of this money. If we had the money to fatten the animals and get them to the market, they would no longer need to be held on the range, taking the place of better animals that should have the

range.

Mr. LEAVY. Do these flocks of sheep and goats belong to individual owners or are they owned by the tribe collectively?

Mr. COLLIER. They belong to individuals, and they vary in size. This Navajo area forms a great part of the Colorado River watershed. It is the area which is shedding now an appalling amount of silt into Boulder Dam. It is the area where the Government, through the Soil Conservation Service, is spending heavily to save the soil; and unless we can cut down the animal overpopulation, all the effort is in vain. It is of vital concern to the Nation as a whole, not merely to the Navajo Tribe.

Mr. RICH. Could you get those Indians to sell their surplus?
Mr. COLLIER. Yes.

Mr. RICH. Why would it not be a good thing to run them in a train and haul them out?

Mr. COLLIER. But then you would have to fatten them. That is what we want to do.

Mr. LEAVY. I think they are only 300 miles from Phoenix.

Mr. COOLEY. Yes.

Mr. COLLIER. But you cannot get much for them if you do not fatten them first. They can be fattened, or they can be shipped to the South and fattened upon grass.

Mr. RICH. You are suggesting putting the Government up in the establishment of slaughterhouses and meat canneries.

Mr. COLLIER. This is a loan to the Indians.

Mr. LEAVY. I do not think there is anything in this loan which would put us in the meat-packing business.

Mr. COLLIER. I might state that the Navajo Indians have been. very responsive. They have cut the sheep population, as I recollect the figures, from around 1,250,000 to around 820,000 out on their reservation. They have cut the goat population in half in the last 3 years. But the range is still terribly overloaded.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do you propose to cut it?

Mr. COLLIER. The ultimate carrying capacity of this range areaI might have to correct my figures in minutiae-would be approximately one-half a million sheep units, and it is now carrying about a million.

Mr. LEAVY. As a member of the agricultural subcommittee, about 10 days ago this matter was gone into quite extensively; and it was brought out at that time as the result of overgrazing that the erosion problem has been created; that the land is washing away rapidly, and not only a tremendous amount of land destroyed from a productivity standpoint but it is interfering very greatly with the use of the waters of the Colorado River, and it has made necessary a quite extensive program in soil conservation.

Mr. JOHNSON. I will say that I was over a great deal of that country last year and this soil is eroded worse than I had anticipated.

Mr. COLLIER. The Navajos have done some quite remarkable things recently. They have adopted range regulations which are quite thorough. They are making sacrifices. They are doing what they can do, but unless we devise some means of getting the scrub stock off, and marketing the lambs, we will still continue to have a surplus of useless or inferior animals on the land, undoing much of the good that the Government is accomplishing.

Mr. JOHNSON. Why would it not be possible to finance this matter out of the Wheeler-Howard Act?

Mr. COLLIER. They are not under the act. They rejected the act by about 400 votes in 16,000 votes cast, and they cannot vote again without enabling legislation. If they were under the act, that is precisely what we would do.

Mr. JOHNSON. Are there any further questions?

AMOUNT REQUIRED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF PLANT, ETC.

Mr. RICH. What percentage of increase are you asking for? There is a difference of $135,000 more than you are asking for this purpose. What part of that $135,000 are you going to use for building a manufacturing establishment?

Mr. DODD. The total amount for new construction that we put in there would not exceed $50,000. That would include the plant and equipment, stock corrals, and feeding plants, and things of that sort. It would probably not run over $50,000.

Mr. RICH. Then for what purpose would you utilize that equipment and plant in another year?

Mr. DODD. It is a constantly revolving proposition.

Mr. RICH. What do the people of Oklahoma and the people of Arizona and the people of California and the people of other States

This leaves a balance of $24,000 for distribution according to the demands for agricultural activities in the spring. Special emphasis is being given to the vestment of these funds in enterprises which will enable Indians to realize a ret.in the quickest possible time. Individually planned agricultural and livestors programs assist the Indians to make wise use of this loan fund.

Sixty-one students have received loans totaling $10,669 from the furis set aside for educational purposes. The balance of $4,331 probably will be .: before the beginning of the second semester of the school year 1936 37.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

The ap

[ocr errors]

for the focal year 1936 wa $150,000

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

for ex, C ve of frugt, cover the d tgt: n of town cattle from the New Mexico Rural R... st n Corporation then the R met Ad strat

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Indians of 41 jurisdictions obtained some assistance from this appropriation. Their requests, however, exceeded the amount available by $52,000.

Industry among Indians, 1936

Agency

Requested

Granted Denied

[blocks in formation]

$4,000.00

2,700.00

1, 438. 70 1,401. 20 2,000.00 3, 160.00 4, 117.50 9,500.00 10, 000. 00 2, 377.70 21, 275.00 5,750.00 1,842. 30 3, 140.00 3,000.00 7,000.00

1, 712.50
1, 139.50
3,736.90
8, 000, 00
33, 650.00
665,00
5, 000. 00
5,000.00
3, 475, 10
2,000,00
6, 000. 00
4,755.00
1,700.00
360.00
3,600.00

3, 747. 10
4,850.90
3,290.00

3, 188, 20
5, 075.00
4,000.00
5,715.00
54.77

$4,000.00
2,449. 10

1, 438. 70
1, 401. 20
2.000.00

3, 160.00
4, 117.50
3,318. 40
2,500.00
2, 377.70
3,500.00
5,750.00
1,842, 30
2, 897.70
3,000.00
4,500.00
1,712. 50
1, 139. 50
3,736.90
2, 554. 60
33, 650.00
665.00
2,825.00
5,000.00
3, 475. 10
2, 000. 00
2,750.00
4,755, 00
1,700. 00
360.00
930.00

3, 747. 10
4, 219.90
3,290.00
3, 188. 20
5,075.00

$250.90

6, 181. 60 7,500.00

17,775,00

242.30

2,500.00

5, 445. 40

2, 175.00

3, 250.00

2, 670.00

631.00

4,000.00

5,715.00

54.77

[blocks in formation]

The loans for support in 1936 aggregated $13,180 as compared with $20,826.24 in 1935 and $23,800.09 in 1934. The act provides that such loans may remain a charge and lien against the Indian lands until paid and reimbursements from such loans will therefore not be made as rapidly as in the case of industrial assistance loans. Loans for the improvement of irrigable allotments totaled $1,837.50.

Applications for loans are made on a printed form and submitted to the Indian Office for approval. The amount loaned any one Indian does not exceed $1,000 where the money is to be used for development of the allotment, and where the loan is due to old age, disability or indigence, such amount as may be necessary properly to care for the applicant, in no case to exceed $600 in any one fiscal year. The total amount loaned cannot exceed 50 percent of the appraised value of the permanent improvements. When the loan is approved notation is made on our land records against the trust allotment or inherited land of the applicant. The total amount of the loan is placed to the credit of the allottee as individual money to be used for the specific purpose required. When authorized for land development the money may be used for any kind of productive improvement, for drainage, leveling, fertilizer, seed, needed buildings, and for proper equipment. Loans to allottees on account of old age are used for necessary living expenses of the individual and his immediate dependent family.

139751-37-pt. 1—62

« PreviousContinue »