Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/129

Rh paid to the counties, in proportion to the forest area in each for the joint benefit of the common schools and roads; 10 per cent is expended on the roads within the forests under direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, and about 11 per cent is paid to the State as the proportion to which the school fund is entitled under the terms of the enabling act.

The total undivided forest, school, and road fund in the last five years has been:

Of the public-school lands included in sections 2, 16, 32, and 36, the sum of 1,746,860.01 acres is included in Indian reservations. About 24 per cent of the acreage of the whole State is bound up in Indian reservations, and of this amount almost exactly one-tenth would of right belong to the schools. The school lands thus included in the reservations make up about 21.5 per cent of the total school possessions. The largest of these tracts is the 903,837.51 acres within the Navajo Reservation, and the smallest the 560 acres within the Mojave Reservation. The San Carlos Apaches cover 177,920 acres and the White Mountain Apaches (Fort Apache) almost an identical amount. The revised statutes of the United States provide that when such school lands fall within the limits of Indian reservations the State may either select other lands of equal value or it may await the extinction of the Indian title. A preliminary survey of these lands made by the land commission of the State brought the conclusion that with certain exceptions the school lands within the reservations should be relinquished and indemnity lands taken in their place, for they are practically all desert. This was regarded as especially true of the Navajo and Moqui lands, which contain 1,177,945.09 acres, and which, after careful investigation, were considered as practically worthless. With reference to the two Apache reservations, making up a total of 355,679.25 acres, and the Kaibab and Colorado River reservations containing 41,267.65 acres, it was thought best for the State to await the extinguishment of the Indian title, for the Colorado River lands are susceptible of irrigation either by pumping or diversion, while portions of the Apache lands are well watered and susceptible of extensive development.