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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 83 were continually crowding into the' Indian country soon made the available water supply a consideration of first importance. Agree-ments with certain tribes for cessions of lands provided that irriga-tion be secured by the expenditure of all or part of the money ob-tained for the lands. Occasionally an engineer was employed; fin-ally an inspecting engineer entered the service. Better results fol-lowed, and good but economically built irrigation works are now to be found on many Indian reservations. The reclamation act of June 17, 1902, set aside the unappropriated waters of the public domain to be acquiredthereafter in private own-ership only under the doctrine of beneficial use? making a statutory change in the common-law doctrine of riparian right. Prior to that act there seems to be no instance of anyone denying the right and power of the General Government to appropriate sufficient water on a,n Indian reservation for the needs of the Indians. ,Recently, how-ever, these have been denied. Even where' the Government has ap-propriated water under a clear implication of law, having specifically covenanted to protect the water rights of Indians and also, as trustee! expended many thousand dollars of their money in constructing irri-gation systems, it has been urged before courts, the Congress, and the Department that the Indians had no such rights. But surely if the Congress could appropriate all the unused waters of the public do-main for the purposes of the reclamation act, it could appropriate waters in Indian reservations for the use and benefit of the Indian occupants of those rescrvations. Whenever the subject has been fairly presented to the Congress it has taken this view, and so far the courts also have sustained the rights of the Indians. The activity in developing irriga&on thruout the West has forced the Office to make special effort to gain for the Indian his just share of the water and enable him to hold it. As the trust created by the title to the lands is administered by the Indian Department, and as Indian moneys are largely used, the Indian Service has continued to construct irrigation works on Indian reservations, altho, had the Rec-lamation Service been in existence earlier, donbtless a different plan would have been followed. Now, construction work by the Reclama-tion Service means the abandonment of any special right reserved to the Indian under the law creating his status as a property holder and gives him only the possibility of. acquiring a right under the doctrine of beneficial use. On this fact, as well as on the retention of admin-istrative jurisdiction of Indian lands in the Indian Office, has rested , the argument in favor of keeping the irrigation work for such lands also under Office control. When the lands pass to the unrestricted jurisdiction of the States, the water rights should go with them, otherwise confusion is bound to arise and litigation result, in which |