The Spokane Tribe's Bargain: Timber Revenue for a Forest Reserve

At a conference of the members of the Spokane tribe of Indians and a representative of the federal government at Washington, closed at the Indian agency at Miles last Saturday night, the Indians agreed that all the mountainous land remaining unallotted on the reservation shall be used for the formation of a forest reserve, provided that they shall receive for a period of 25 years all the revenue derived from the sale of timber from the reserve thus formed.

In regard to the farming land on Walker's Prairie, a few miles south of Springdale, which the commissioners of Stevens county have asked to have opened to free homestead entry without any money fee per acre, the Indians agreed that the same should be so opened, provided they were reimbursed for the land thus taken, the price asked by them from the government being $5 per acre. Other questions of importance to the members of the tribe in regard to the proposed opening of the reservation were discussed.

Inspector Allen, who is at the agency at Miles, expects to remain for several days yet, conferring with the tribes, after which he will return to Washington to make his report to the commissioner of Indian affairs.