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Show 247 respect to the need for such federal activity, the Secretary has stated:676 Permanent rehabilitation of the Indians on the Great Plains, in fact almost everywhere west of the one hun- dredth meridian, requires that the productivity of the relatively small amounts of land remaining available for their use be increased by providing irrigation facili- ties. The irrigation activities of the Bureau embrace about 838,000 acres of land, and include a dozen major projects to- gether with a number of subsistence garden tracts.577 Indians and the Federal Government.-Before turning to the details of federal activities respecting Indian irrigation, we should take preliminary note of the relationship between the Indians and the Federal Government. The Supreme Court of the United States has said that, "It is thoroughly established that the Congress has plenary authority over the Indians and all their tribal relations, and full power to legislate concerning their tribal property."678 As to the nature and origin of this authority, the Court has observed that:679 878 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, p. 377 (1940). "'Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, p. 350 (1949) ; Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law, pp. 250-252 (1945) ; see 25 C. F. R., Part 130. For reference to subsistence garden tracts, see Hearings before a Sub- committee of the House Committee on Appropriations on Interior Depart- ment Appropriation Bill for 1941, 76th Cong., 3d sess., Part II, p. 291 (1940). See also Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Com- mittee on Appropriations on H. R. 6958, 75th Cong., 1st sess., p. 245 (1937). For an indication of the broad and varied activities of the Government directly connected with Indian irrigation, see, e. g., Act of June 29, 1948, 62 Stat. 1112,1119; Act of October 12,1949, 63 Stat. 765, -. 578 Winton v. Amos, 255 U. S. 373, 391 (1921). ™ Board of Commissioners v. Seier, 318 U. S. 705, 715 (1943). In connection with the last sentence of the quoted excerpt, see Act of June 18,1934, 48 Stat. 984, 25 U. S. C. 461 et seg. That Act "provides that each tribe, if it chooses, may establish the machinery to exercise all of its inherent powers: the right to adopt a constitution, to operate its machinery of government, to determine membership or citizenship in the tribe, to levy taxes, to administer law and order, to regulate domestic relations, to veto the disposition of tribal assets, and increasingly to assume a po- litical and economic control over its internal affairs similar to that of an |