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Show 144 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTE~OR. general for Nevada, and that when they shall have been approved by the General Land Office copies will be transmitted to this Office. On the receipt of these copies steps will at once be taken to allot the lands, and Mr. W. E. Casson, special allotting agent, has been desig-nated to do this work. On July 22, 1905, J. R. Neskimons, superintendent of irrigation, was assigned to duty on the Walker River Reservation for the pur-pose of surveying and planning a system of irrigation on the surveyed lands sufficient to make allotments to the Indians. He wss directed to make a survey and prepare maps showing all the irrigation ditches that have been constructed on the reservation and the land covered thereby, giving the acreage, section, township and range, and the number of Indians who can be allotted 20 acres each. Then he is to estimate the quantity of additional land which must be brought under irrigation in order to give 20 acres to every remaining Indian-man, woman, or child-and to determine by surveys the lines of the ditches to be extended and constructed for that purpose. Full instructions were given him as to making proper filings with the State officiak for water rights for these Indians. As stated in the last annual report, the amended agreement between the United States and the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians, contained in the appropriation act of April 12, 1904 (33 Stat:, L. 194) was ratified and accepted by the Indians on Octo-her 8, 1904. The Assistant Attorney-General, in an opinion dated January 19, 1905, held that the document signed by the Indians ratifying the agreement gave no general release of their claim to certain lands in North Dakota, and that the ratification of the agreement was not complete until the Indians had executed and delivered an instrument releasing all claims and demands of every nature against the United States, with the exceptions and reserva-tions specified in the act. It therefore became necessary to call another council of the Indians, which was held on February 15, when they executed such a release, wh'ich was approved by the Department on March 10, 1905. Of the $1,000,000 to be paid under this agseement, the superintend-ent in charge of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa has been furnished with $100,000, with which to make a per capita payment of $50 each. On April 22,1905, it was recommended to the Department that the two townships embraced in the Turtle Mountain Reservation be m-veyed as public lands are surveyed, but no information has been re-ceived as to what action has been taken in regard to this matter. It js very important that the reservation be surveyed at the earliest prac- |
