Iished streets and alleys of the
town site have been, extended
upon and across the tract, that
there is reserved to the town sito
the area covered by such streets
and alleys as extended. The deed
should provide further that the
approval by the Secretary of the
Interior of a sale by the Indian
or Eskimo transferee shall vest
in the purchaser a complete and
unrestricted title from the date
of such approval.
Very respectfully,
.. William Spry, Commissioner.
E. C. Finney,
First Assistant Secretary.
Approved: July 20, 1926.
--x
The restricted deeds offered
Alaska Indian or Eskimo claim
ants of lands provides that the
lands, “t jgether with all im -
provements thereon and appur
tenances thereunto belonging,
subject to the condition that the
above-described land SHALL
NOT BE ALIENATED OR EN
CUMBERED WITHOUT THE
CONSENT of the Secretary of
the Interior, and SHALL NOT be
subject to taxation, to levy and
sale in satisfaction of the debts,
contracts, or liabilities of the pa
tentee, or to any claims of ad
verse occupancy or law of pre
scription, and subject to the fur
ther condition that there is re
served from the operation of
this conveyance the land cover
ed by the established streets and
alleys extended upon and across
the said tract, To have and to
held said described premises un
to the said parties of the second
part, their heirs, executors, ad
ministrators, and assigns, forev
er.
It would appear to the layman
that the law governing Indian
lands in Alaska is a deprivation
of the constitutional liberties of
the American citizen of Indian
or Eskimo blood. That tho re
cognized as a citizen by the dis
trict court, the Act of 1926 re
serves him as a ward.
In the Auk Village controversy
between the Forest Department
and James Murphy and others of
Juneau, the department over
stepped its scope of authority by
‘ alienating” the lands in dispute.
Title to the Auk Bay property,
claimed by the Juneau Indians,
ij vested in the Secretary of the
Interior and so long as title to
the property is vested in the Se
cretary of the Interior to hold in
trust for the Auk Bay Indians,
and so long as the land has not
been surveyed and title issued
to the Indians, nor consent by
the Secretary TO ALIENATE,
the Forest Department may not
take possession without due pro
cess of law; and they may not
make any disposition of the
lands in question, or any other
Indian lands, other than as pro
vided by the Act of 1926.
Some Good Farming Land Is Obtainable in Alaska
-x
From The Anchorage Times
About 65,000 square miles of
land in Alaska is suitable for
agriculture, the U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture estimates.
Not more than 364 square miles
of this has been brought under
the plow. Most of the land re
mains under government own
ership and, except that in na
tional forests, is available for
homesteaders.
Dr. H. W. Alberts, director of
Alaska Agricultural Experiment
Stations has written Circular 1
C, Information for Prospective
Settlers in Alaska, in which he
discusses the climatic character
istics and agricultural adapta
tions of this northern territory
of the United States.
Alaska, with her 59,278 resi
dents, lies between the same pa
rallels of latitude as Norway,
Sweden, Finland and the upper
third of Russia, which have a
population of more than 10,000,
000. Alaska has three climatic
belts, known as the coast region,
the Interior, and the Arctic. The
Territory extends from about 52
degrees north latitude north
ward about 1,000 miles to Point
Barrow, well above the Arctic
Circle. Naturally it has a varied
climate, with warm Japan cur
rent on the south and the frigid
Arctic ocean on the north exert
ing their opposing influences.
The government agricultural ex
periment stations and hundreds
of settlers have demonstrated
that diversified agricultural
commodities can be produced
there.
The coastal belt begins at the
southeastern corner of the Ter
ritory and extends about 70C
miles northward to Bering Strait
Winter minimum temperatures
range from 5 degrees above zero
at Dutch Harbor to 54 degrees
below at Dillingham. Summer
maximum temperatures vary
from 80 to 96 degrees. Rainfall
\aries widely—from 14 to 157
inches annually.
The interior region has long
winters with temperatures rang
ing down to minimums from 34
to 76 degrees below zero and
short summers with temperatur
es up to 84 to 97 degrees. Most
of the interior receives only 9
to 12 inches of precipitation al
though some places precipitation
is as high as 16 to 20 inches.
The Arctic region is unfavor
able to crop production except
in a few isolated places, where
hardy vegetables grow well on
the southern slopes. The region
is covered with mosses and lich
ens on which caribou feed.
The Matanuska Valley in south