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Show REPORT OF THE COMMSSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 63 irrigation engineers. The appropriation for the last fiscal year was $100,000, with a similar provision for the employment of engineers, and also for the employment of a clerk in this office at a salary of $1,000 per annum. Two engineers are employed-George Butler, at large, and John B. Harper, on thel'uebloand Jicarillareservationsin New Mexico. Expe- : rience hris demonstrated, that the number of superintendents allowed is not sufficient to secure a judicious expenditure of the amount appro-priated. Superintendent Butler was taken from general work and placed in charge of construction on the Klamath Reservation, but before he had completed that work the Department felt compelled to assign him to duty on the Navaho Reservation. The number of I superintendents should be increased to five. Some $5,000 of the appropriation for last year was expended or1 the Pueblo, Southern Ute, Uintah, Walker River, Pyramid Lake, Western Shoshoni, Yakima, Klamath, Mescalero, and Wind River reservations. Superintendent Harper has estimated for the expenditure of some $85,000 on the Zuni Reservation, 8850,000 to be expended the first year; $8,400 has heen set aside for the Pueblo of Cochiti, $6,500 for San Carlos, $10,000 for Navaho, $5,000 for Crow, and $3,500 for Yakima. Sun Ildefonso Pueblo.-In regard to the ditch at San Ildefonso, to which reference was made in my last annual report, Superintendent Harper reported August 4, 1902, as follows: This ditch was completed and turned over to the Indians on June 30, 1901, and has been operated by them since. They have taken good care of the property, cleaning it out well in the spring and repairing such damage as has been caused by severe storms. The most destructive storm in the past thirty yeam occurred last summer, and the Indians put the ditch in as good shape as when they received it, with four days' work. These people are now independent, having raised two good crops under the ditch and are extending the cultivated am. Before the completion of this ditch they had harvested no arops for four years, ssd were face to face with starvation. As the water aupply is abundant st thia point, I can see no reason why they should not con-tiiue to iuerease the amount of land farmed until they become quite prosperous. Crow ~eserkt ionM, ont.-The work on the Bighorn Canal has been continued under Superintendent Hill during the present season and is nearing completion. Navaho Reservation, Arb. and B. Mex.-In the northern portion of the Navaho Reservation a drought has prevailed for three years, con-sequently there is no grass, and the sheep and horses of the Indians have died in large numbers. July 29 last, authority was granted by the Department to expend not exceeding $850 in develpping springs and wells in that locality as a source of water supply for stock and domestic purposes; also to repair, where needed, the constructed ditches. It is hoped that this action will give some relief to the Indians. |