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Show 250 patents, when the United States is not a party, since the right to use the water appurtenant to these lands is the property of the United States.591 And the state court has no jurisdiction in the case of water rights of former allotted reservation lands to which fee patents had been issued and later conveyed to non- Indians, where the title to other reservation lands riparian to the same stream was still in the United States.692 In practice, the Bureau of Indian Affairs files with offices of state engineers statements of what Indian rights are, not as applications but merely to record the facts in such offices.593 Federal Projects.-The Secretary is authorized to regulate use of waters for irrigation to secure a "just and equal distribu- tion" among Indians residing upon a reservation.594 In addi- tion, where he deems it in the best interests of the Indians, the Secretary may include allotted nonreservation Indian lands within an irrigation project, but no lien or construction, opera- tion, or maintenance charge may be created thereby against such land.695 Authorization.-The major Indian irrigation projects have been developed under several series of legislative acts for par- ticular projects.596 In addition to general appropriations for irrigation in 1884 and 1892, Congress beginning in 1893 annu- ally made general appropriations under the heading "Irriga- tion, Indian Reservations" for such purposes as were not provided for by specific appropriation.597 Since 1910, however, no new irrigation project may be constructed on Indian lands without the specific authorization of Congress if the cost ex- ceeds $35,000.598 Nor may any such project be undertaken until surveys and maximum cost estimates have been made and 691 Anderson v. Spear-Morgan Livestock Co., 107 Mont. 18, 26-27, 79 P. 2d 667, 669 (1938). 598 Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appro- priations on H. R. 9621, 75th Cong., 3d sess., p. 211 (1938). 694 Act of February 8,1887, § 7, 24 Stat. 388, 390, 25 U. S. C. 381. 885 Act of March 3, 1909, 35 Stat. 798-799, see 25 TL S. C. 382. 594 Cohen, Handbook of Fedebal Indian Law, p. 250 et seq. (1945). 697 Id. p. 248. 688 Act of April 4, 1910, § 1, 36 Stat. 269, 25 U. S. C. 383. |
