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Show 12 REPORT OF THE BEORETAEY OF TEE INTERIOR The projects vary in area from a few acres to as many as 183,000 acres. They comprise a total of 692,057 acrea and have cost the Gov-ernment in 60 years for construction and operation, $35,967,925.72. The report shows that only $979,859.79, or 3.5 per cent, of the amount expended for construction of Indian irrigation works and which is reim-bursable has been collected. In only a fewltlatances where Indian land is leased are Indians being required to pay construction charges. In the report,it is estimated that the Governmentdl ultimately sustain a loss of about $2,000,000 by reason of its inabiity to make collections on lands now in white ownership. The total collections on account of operation and maintenance of the Indian projects amounted on June 30, 1927, to $2,638,311.33, or 29.9 per cent of the sum expended. Approximately 70 per cent of the land susceptible of irrigation on Indian projects is in Indian ownership, the remaining 30 per cent being owned by whites. The report shows that only 362,018 acres, or 52 per cent, of the reclaimed area, are now being irrigated; that only 117,189 acres, or 32 per cent, are irrigated by Indians; and that the remaining 244,829 acres, or 68 per cent, are irrigated by either white owners or lessees. This means that only 16.9 per cent, or 117,189 acres of the total acreage on Indian projects for which water has been provided by the Government, is irrigated by Indians. The report calls attention to the fact that on many of the so-called Indian projects most of the farming-in some cases practically all-is being done by whites, either as lessees or owners. For example, ' on the Wapato project, Y W a Reservation, the total acreage irri-gated is 77,938, of which 4,661 acres, or 6 per cent, are irrigated by Indians; on the Blackfeet projec twith 7,149 acres susceptible of irri-gation, only 44 acres, or about 0.6 of 1 per cent, are irrigated by In-dians; on the Flathead Reservation the Indians are irrigating only 452 acres, or 1.3 per cent, of the 34,441 acres irrigated. The Indians of the Uintah Reservation, of Utah, are doing more farming than are the Indians of any other reservation. They culti-vate 15,243 acres. The Gila River, or Pirna Reservation, of Arizona, is second with 12,000 acres farmed by Indians. It is interesting to note that 40 per cent of all Indian farming on projects covered by the report is on the Uintah and Pima Reservations. It is recited that on many projects the acreage utilized by Indians is continually decreas-ing, while the acreage utilized by whites is increasing. Crops produced on irrigated lands farmed by Indians in 1927 had an estimated value of $1,500,000, or an average crop value of $21 per acre. On the same projects, the average crop value or return secured by white farmers was approximately $40 per acre. The report discloses that many Indians, particularly those on the northern projects, are securing insuficient returns from their irrigable land, some as low as $6 per acre. Most of such land is not cultivated, |
