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Show ~ectiona, nd that prior to that date allotments made to mixed bloods as well as full bloods, had been approved by the Department; therefore it would appear that the derision should not be retroactive, and that it should apply to allotments made prior to that date. April 5, 1900, the office submitted an argnment at length in favor of the Indian's claim, and asked that it he considered and finally determined. July 30, 1900, the Department replied that this case was similar to that of Mike Williams, and that the rule therein laid down would govern. The office understands from these two rulings that all allotment applications made by the children of Indian women married to white men are to be rejected, and that all allotments to them not patented are to be canceled. IRRIGATION. r- I The Indian appropriation act for the current fiscal year authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to employ not exceeding two superin-tendents of irrigation, who shall be skilled irrigation engineers. Under this authority George Butler is employed as superintendent of irrigation on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and John D. Harper has recently been appointed such superintendent for the pueblos of New Mexico, several of these communities being in a di-tressing state of poverty from lack of water. The amount of the appropriation available for irrigation purposes during the current fiscal year, aside from the funds of a few tribes, is $50,000. Colorado River Reservation, Ariz.-The Indians have suffered for some years on account of insufficient irrigation. Out of 2,000 Indians belonging on the reservation only 300 were living there in 1898, some 1,500 having congregated in the vicinity of Needles, Cal., many of them subsisting by the charity of citizens and travelers. Last year relief to some extent was afforded by the purchase of a steam engine and pump by which water was supplied to a small tract of land, enabling a few of those who had left the reservation to return. There is an abundant water supply, said to be capable of irrigating some 300,000 acrea of land, which will produce any of the frnits, vege-tables, or grains that can be grown in southern California. To con-struct a system of irrigation for these lands will necessarily be an undertaking of considerable magnitude, but it will sooner or later become a necessity. Pima Reservation, Ariz.-For a number of years the matter of a water supply for the Pima Indians on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona has received the attention of this office. Before the lands around the reservation were settled to any considerable extent these Indians were enabled to obtain a sufficient water supply to irrigate so much of the reservation as would enable them to raise crops enough for their sup-port. As the country settled up, the supply in the Gila River was |