OCR Text |
Show 48 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. IRRIaATION. A very large proportion of all Indians live upon reservations having rainfall insufficient to carry on successful agricultural pur-suits. In the reclamation of these areas approximately 403,000 acres are now irrigable through completed works constructed under the direct supervision of this bureau. Upon the 60 reservations where these projects are located are more than 80,000 Indians, so it is evi-dent that much more land must be eventually provided with water. To this end surveys and investigations both as to the possibility and desirability of enlarging present irrigation projects and the initia-tion of new projects have been made. On the Colville Reservation in Washington several areas were mapped and plans prepared for irrigation works where the water supply can be obtained at a reasonable cost. I t is especially desirable to undertake these projects in the near future. The Papago country, in southern Arizona, was covered by a recon-noissanee survey of sufficient accuracy to determine water supplies sufficient to provide for stock and domestic use, which seems to be the limit of water possibility in this very arid country. On the Gila River the extensive survey to determine the legal and physical availability of the supply of water for the Pima Indians, as pro-vided for in the appropriation act of August 1, 1914, has been com-pleted. Investigations haTe also been made on the Southern Ute, Western Shoshone, Taos, Rort Apache, Klamath, Wind River, Owens Valley, Cal., and upon various other reservations. The character of the soil and the climate and water supply on sev-eral reservations is of such a nature that stock raising seems to be the most remunerative occupation for the Indians. The development of water to increase the value of the gr a~ingar eas has been continued, especially in the Navajo and Papago countriw. A total of 53 wells were drilled during the past year, with varying results. Upon the northern reservations the limit of stock raiqing is deter-mined by the amount of winter feed which may be obtained. IRRIGATION CONSTRUCTION. Among the more important operations were the following: Con-struction of the Sprague River diversion dam of the Modoc Point project, Klamath Reservation, Oreg., was completed during the year, and also a11 the canal system except some laterals with their neces-sary structures. On the ceded portion of the Wind River Reserva-tion, Wyo., arrangements were made to construct, in cooperation with white settlers, an enlarged Le Clair Canal, covering more than 7,000 acres of Indian allotments, which lie too widely separated to have been economically irrigated without this cooperation. On the Gila |