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REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAX AFFAIR^. 171 June 11 this office recommended that Inspector McLaughlin be designated to obtah deeds for the Ian& and improvement3 of the vendors and to see that the improvements sold to the Government were intact, etc. He was instructed accordingly by the Department, June 18 and July 17, at the request of the Department, further instructions were givenhim by this ofice. It was decided, upon the reconimendation of this ofice, that the white settlers, or beneficiaries of the appropriation, should be paid by warrants drawnin their favor on the United State8 Treasury, and that the heads of 46 Indian families residing east of Tongue =ver should be paid for their improvements, through the United States Indian agent of the Tongue River Agency, Mont. He was fully instructed on August 10, 1900, respcting such payments, and funds have been placed to his credit 'for that purpose. Most of the deeds have been obtained by the inspector from the white settlers. They have been considered by this ofice and the Department, and the claims of the settlers are on the way to final adjustment. PUEBLO INDIANS. During last year the Albuquerque Land and Irrigation Company, a corporation existing under the laws of the Territory of New Mexico, sought to appropriate the surplus waters of the Ria Grandc River at a point just south of the pueblo of San Felipe, and to constiuct a canal through the lands of the San Felipe, Sauta Ana, and Sandia pueblos as well as the lands of numerous individuals. All of those lands, except the San Felipe pueblo, are supplied with water for irrigation from the Ria Grande by means of several irrigating ditches whose dams or heads are below the point of extraction proposed by the company. There was muchopposition by residents along the line of the proposed canal, not only to its survey, but also to the appropriation of water by the com-pany, which resulted in numberless proceedings before the Territorial courts. Suit having been instituted by the company in the district court of Sanh Fe County, N. Mex., a ~ i n s th e pueblo of Sandia et al., to restrain the defendants from interfering with the construction of the canal, Judge McFie of said court held that the company had a legal right to construct the canal across the Indian lands without inter-ference on the part of the Indians. At the same time the court found that, in accordance with the agreed statement of facts l e d by counsel for both parties to the suit, the Indian pueblos were entitled to their rights as prior appropriators of water in the Ria Grande. By this decree the Pueblos are guaranteed the right to water to the full capacity of their present ditches. November 28, 1899, the agent in charge of |
