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Show REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 8 devolves hpon the Reclamation Service the handling of those irriga-tion projects into which both white and Indian interests enter, reserv- - ing for the Indian Office those which are purely Indian propositions; but even in the latter class the irrigationists of the Indian Service have I 1 the benefit of the expert ad.vice and assistanoe of the consulting engi-neers of the sister service. Such a combination procures for the Indians the best the Government can command in the way of irriga-tion plans and work, and reduces the chances of serious mistakes to a minimum. In my report for 1907 I mentioned that the project for the Bima (Gila River) Reservation in Arizona had been turned over to the Reclamation Service. Since then the projects for the Blackfeet, Flathead, and Fort Peck reservations in Montana have been disposed of in a similar manner. The Blackfeet project was authorizad by the act of March 1, 1907 (34 Stat. L., 1035), which provided for allotting the Blackfeet Res-ervation and appropriated $300,000 toward constructing irrigation systems for the allotted lands, to be reimbursed from the sate of the surplus lands of the reservation. The Flathead project was authorized by the act of April 30, 1908 I (35 Stat. L., 70-83), which appropriates $50,000 for the preliminary surveys, plans and estimates of irrigating systems to irrigate the allotted lands of the Indians of the Flathead Reservation and the. . mallotted irrigable lands to be disposed of under the act of April !B, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 302), and to begin the construction of the same, to be reimbursed from the proceeds of the sale of the lands within the reservation. The Fort Peck project was authorized by the ad of May 40, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 558), which directs the Secretary of the Interior to cause an examination of the lands within that reservation to be made by the Reclamation Service and by experts of the Geological Survey, "and if there be found any lands which it may be deemed practicable to bring under an irrigation project, or any-lands bearing lignite coal, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to construct such irrigation projects an?I reserve such lands as may be irrigable there-from or necessary for irrigation works, and also coal lands as may be necessary to the construction and maintenance of any such projects." The act appropriates $200,000 to pay the costs of examination and for the constrnetion of the irrigation systems, to be reimbursed from proceeds of sales of lands within the reservation. It is presumed that the report of the director of the Reclamation Service will contain full information concerning what has been done on the Indian projects under his control. Having got the cooperative reclamation system well under way, the next advance were made to the Bureau of Plant Industry in |
