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Show 50 REPORT OF THE CO&I&fISSIONEI1 OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. December 20,1892, the War Department informed this Department that the surveys had been made as reoommended, and transmitted the original reports of the army officers detailedfor the work. The matter mas referred to this office for its consicteratiou and report. Febrnary 10, 1893, this office recomlneudkd to the Department tllat Congress be asked to appropriate $64,000 for the purpose of developing a mater supply and a system of irrigation on the Navajo lieservation sufficient to meet the antn:tl and immediateneeds aud wants of the Navajoluclians, up011 tlie general plan sub~ni tkdby the military officers. February 14, 1893, a i d office report, together with the reports of the officers referred to and accompanying documents and maps, was transmitted by the Presideut to Congress. (See Senate Ex. Doc. No. 68, Fifty-second Con-gress, second sessio~r.) Congress appropriated by clause contailled ill the Indian 5pprolxia-tion act, approveil March 3,1893 (27 Stat., 612), $40,000 for the cou-struction of irrigating ditches and the develop~oenot f a water supply for agricultural, stock, and domestic purposes on the Navqjo Reserva-tion. Thissnm,togetherw-iththeamou~1t~-abont$3~,000-no~~i~vailable on the books of this office, appropriated at varions times by Congress for the %%mpeu rpose, will enable the Department to develop a sufficient mater sul~plya nd establish a system of irrigatiou on that reservation, mhicll mill marrant the return thereto of roving Navajoes and the restraining of those mho are in the habit of going beyond its limits to secnremater and grass for their floclrs and herds. This alone seems to be the proper solntion of the vexed Navajo question. Recommendation has beeu made to the Department for t l ~ ea, ppoint-meut of some suitable and competent man to superintend the work proposed. Jiiscel1rn~eofcs.-During t.he last fiscal year the expe~~ditnoref some $42,564 for irrigating purposes mas authorized. The principal part of this money was assigned to the Pima Reservation, Ariz.; Yakima, Wash.; Western Shoshone, Pyramid Lake, and Wallrer River reserva-tions, Nev.; Flathead, Mont.; Fort Hall, Idaho; Ouray Reservation, in Utah; Fort Sliavr Indian Sohool I%eservetion, Mont.; Fort Mojave School Reservation, Ariz., %ud the Perris School Beservatim, in Cali-fornia. lflluch of the money mas expended in clearing and repairing ditches and iu repairing dams already constructed. So far as the oonstrnction of new systems of irrigation is coucerned, I concur io the opinion of my predecessor, '(that the money could be expended to better advantage, if the appoir~tme~olft a colnpetent engi-neer to superintend the work mere authorized by law." |