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Show REPORT OF THF, COMMISRIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 61 ; All of the foregoing are simple judgments, with the exception of that of E. T. Wilson, $668.50, and Grant H. Nickerson, $1,290.40, which are foreclosures of liens. The judgment of John A. Modine for $3,665.12 includes also the liens of several other parties, viz, Julien DeCoster, John A. Modine, Fred Wilson, and Wernett & Dial. The amount of the judgments, as shown in above liat, includes the actual amounts of the various judgments with the costs added. July 27, 1900, Samuel J. Rich, receiver of the Idaho Canal Com-pany, was notified that the defective work must be remedied and the contract fully complied with, and that no further payment would be made until it should be satisfactorily shown that all claims that had or might become liens upon the property of aid company to the injury or detriment of the Indians or the United States had been sat-isfied or discharged. On the same date each surety on the bond of the company, Messrs. James H. Brady, Daniel Swinehart, Frank W. Smith, and Charles W. Spalding, was notified that he would be held liable for any default of the company under its contract. The letter addressed to Mr. Smith, at his last-known residence, has been returned to this office undelivered. In a report dated August 3, 1900, Inspector Graves refers to the irrigation situation on the Fort Hall Reservation as follows: The ditch constructed by the receiver for the Idaho Canal Comprtny last winter, extending from the Blackfoot River to Ross Fork Creek, is rlry and useless. One or two unsucc~99fual ttempts were made emlier in the season to flow water through it. At each attempt the water hmke through the embankments and washed out unsightly gorges along the aide of the mountain and deposited and over the land below in such quantities as to ruin it for any purpose except as a sand bank. I had some misgivings as to the capability of this canal for carrying the amount of water required by the contract last winter when I examined it and reported upon the matter, and the experience of these attempts to flow water through it has confirmed my ertimate of it. The difficulty arises from the fact that the ditch is not excavated sufficiently; it is a. "builtup" channel rather than an excavated one. In order to make a cheap hut showy ditch only the surface of the ground was excavated for most of the distance, and the material used in making the embankments was borrowed from the surface along the outside of the channel, as it was loose and required hut little, if any, plowing and breaking; indeed, it was mostly sand, and when such material was placed in narrow steep-sloped emhankments it is not at all surprising that it will not withstand the pressure and washing of the water when flowing throogh the ditch in any quantity. I do not believe the ditch in its present condi-tion will carry one-fourth of the quantity of water it is expected to carry and that it will he necessary to carry if the contract is fulfilled. * * * * These Indians are so impressed with the idea. that this irrigation undertaking is a deception and a fraud and pregnant with so much trouble and disaster for them when they attempt to farm and depend upon the ditch for their supply of water that they will not talk about it nor listen with patience to any explanations concerning the matter. It will take a long time to overcome the prejudicethat they have acquired against this company and its ditch system. If it were possihle for the Depnrtment to foreclose the businese in some manner and acquire the right and contract of this canal from the head of i t at Snake River |
