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Show fund. ,7° In the meantime, the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project was begun in the eastern section of the reservation where most of the allotments had been assigned. 171 The plan to build irrigation systems was rejected by the Utes but enthusiastically supported by white settlers who surrounded them and would, therefore, benefit from the systems. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also enthusiastic about the project hoping that it would facilitate family farming on the Ute allotments. The project eventually covered 80,000 acres, most of the allotted lands, and contained 22 canal systems which diverted water from most of the streams in the Uintah Basin. A program was initiated to level, clear, plow, and fence the Indian allotments to get them into cultivation. Tribal funds were used for this purpose. By 1908 over $ 330,000 had been spent on the irrigation project; less than $ 7,000 had been paid to Indian laborers. 172 Under the Act of April 30, 1908, authority was granted the Secretary of the Interior to lease any irrigable allotment with the consent of the allottee. 173 At the same time the Ute people were permitted to sell allotments as soon as they were ready for farming. Out of 80,000acres within the irrigation project, about 25,000 acres were sold to non- Utes. Many acres in the Uintah Basin were irrigated by private companies, the largest being the Dry Gulch Irrigation Company. Water was drawn off at the heads of rivers in reservoirs and dams were built. As a result, the water table of the lands just south of the Uintah Mountains, where the Ute people pastured their cattle, dropped. Water flowed onto Indian allotments, destroying crops and eroding large areas. | 74 The private irrigation companies also drew off water higher up the rivers, leaving the Indian lands short of water. Strict rationing had to be practiced, which caused ill feelings. The United States, in behalf of the Utes, finally had to obtain an injunction in the Federal Court restraining the various companies from interfering with the Indians in the prior use of waters of the Lake Fork, Whiterocks, and Uintah Rivers. ,75 The Act of June 21, 1906, which had authorized the Uintah Irrigation Project, had created an anomalous situation. The title to the water rested in the Secretary of the Interior, yet appropriation of water could only be made in conformity to the laws of the State of Utah with irrigation systems constructed and held and operated under such laws. The Utah law governing water appropriations stated that when an appropriator abandoned or ceased to use water for a period of five years, the water right ceased and, thereupon, such water reverted to the public and could be again appropriated. P6Kneale, appointed agent in 1914, was assigned by the Indian Office to save the " prior water rights" of the Indians, which were being challenged by white settlers with the argument that since the Indians 34 |