Forester and U.S. governmental official Jay P. Kinney was born in 1875 in Otsego County, New York. He entered Cornell University in 1898 having spent several years teaching in rural schools. At Cornell, Kinney's work included not only general studies but also courses in the recently-established College of Forestry. In 1904 Kinney was appointed principal of the Cooperstown (New York) High School; the following year he was similarly employed in Milford, New York. In 1906 Kinney was appointed to the position of assistant examiner in the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. At night he studied at National University Law School, receiving his degree in 1908.
In 1909 Kinney was offered the position of assistant forester and asked to organize an administrative unit within the Indian Service (a predecessor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs) that was to be responsible for all forest resources on Indian lands. From 1910 to 1933, under a succession of titles, Kinney was responsible for the formulation of policies and the management of the department.
During the years 1933 to 1942 Kinney was general production supervisor of CCC activities on all Indian lands. In 1942 he was transferred to the Office of Land Utilization. In 1945 the Justice Department appointed him to an advisory research position for suits brought by various tribes which charged the government with failure to protect Indian interests.
Because of the health of his wife, in 1954 Kinney retired to New York State. After her death in 1956 Kinney returned to government service with the Justice Department in an advisory capacity. Kinney died in 1975.
A more detailed account of Kinney's career is contained in his autobiography, My First Ninety-Five Years (1972). Among his other writings are Essentials of American Timber Law (1917), generally regarded as the only complete base work on forestry law; A Continent Lost-A Civilization Won (1937), Indian Forest and Range: A History of the Administration and Conservation of the Redman's Heritage (1950), and Facing Indian Facts (1973).
