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Show 46 OOMMISSIONEIL OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. To protect the interests of the Indians, special investigations were made with respect to the water rights of several of the reservations. At Uintah a thorough stiidy of the situation was made under direc-tion of a special Assistant Attornei General, and this preparation was of primary importance, as it became necessary in June, 1916, to apply for an injunction in the Federal district court of Utah against illegal diversion of water belonging to the Indians. The Uintah irrigation project had been suffering for several years on account of various encroachments. The conditions of law under which this work was authorized added to the complications and it will require continued watchfulness to retain this large development for the bene-fit of the Indians for whom it is intended. On the Umatilla Reservation, the court rendered a decision con-firming to the Indians water rights which had been in litigatcon for several years. On the Fort Hall Reservation steps were taken after careful consideration and ample legal notice .to offenders to prevent dnmage to the Indian lands and irrigation system by a careless wast-ing of water from irrigation upstream from Fort Hall lands. The extended and comprehensive investigations of conditions re-garding the water supply for the Pima Indians along the Gila River - are expected to furnish the facts with which the Government will be able to protect the rights of the Indians to the water of the Gila. Studies of water rights of the Walker Riper Reservations have also been initiated and apparently it will be possible to take steps to se- , cure a more equitable division of water between the various users upon the Walker River drainage basin. On several other rcserva-tiom similar investigations are being instituted. Reference was made in my last annual report to conditions upon the . three Montana reservations-Flathead, Blackfeet, and Fort Peck-where irrigation construction is being carried on by the engineers of the Reclamation Service. Legislation along the lines there sug-gested was enacted by the present Congress in the Indian appro-priation act. This modification of the method of financing these projects re-leases a portfon of the tribal funds for other uses of the Indians. so that it may be possible for them to obtain at least to a limited extent the eqnipment and resources necessary to enable them to engage in farming. Under the old scheme the Indian funds were hypothecated for all the expenses of irrigation construction, although on two of the reservations a large proportion of the irrigated area not needed for Indian allotments has passed to other ownership. The injustice of tying up Indian funds to construct irrigation works to supply lands for the use of whites is, of course, apparent. |