Enactment of legislation that would add about 845 acres of public land to two Indian reservations in southern California and 80 acres to a reservation in Nevada has been recommended to Congress by the Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.
The California lands are in San Diego County between the towns of Pala and Pauma Valley and were included in a 1903 withdrawal order along with some 8,262 acres lying within the Cleveland National Forest. If the proposed bill is enacted, the Interior Department intends to revoke the withdrawal order so that this latter acreage would be added to the National Forest. Of the lands lying outside the forest boundaries, the bill would add 708.5 acres to the Pala Indian Reservation and 136.5 to the Pauma Indian Reservation.
The 80-acre tract in Nevada is on the Summit Lake Indian Reservation and entirely surrounded by Indian tribal and allotted lands. Although it has been used by the Indians for their livestock enterprise since establishment of the reservation, it has remained legally a part of the public domain. The proposed bill would formally incorporate it as part of the reservation to be held in trust, like other Indian tribal lands, by the United States for the Indian group.
