OCR Text |
Show {) i Com'r Indian Affal. -4- antry, sale, allotment, or other appropriation any lands within any Indian reservation, valuable for power or reservoir sites, or which nay be necessary for use in connection with any irrigation project heretofore or hersaftar to be authorized by Congress: Provided, That if no irrigation project shall be authorized prior to tha opening cf any Indian reservation containing such power or reservoir sitss tha Secretary of the Interior may, in his discration, reserve such sites pending futur9 legislation by Congrsss for their disposition, and he shall report to Congress all reservations made in conformity with thia Act. Sec. 14. That the Secretary of the Interior, after notice and hearing, is hereby authorized to cancel trust patents issued to Indian allottees for allotments ^vithin any power or reservoir sits and for allotments or such portions of allotments as ara located upon or include lands set aside, reserved, or required within any Indian reservation for irrigation purposes under authority of Congrs3s: Provided, That any Indian allottee whose allotment 3_iall be so canceled shall be reimbursed for all improvements on his canceled allotment^ out of any moneys availabla for the construction of the irrigation project for which the said power or reservoir sits ma;/- be set asida: Provided further, That any Indian allottea whose allotment, or part thereof, i'3 30 cancelad shall be allotted land of equal value within the area subject to irrigation by any such project. So far as the Department is advised the above legislation embraces all the provisions of law applicable to tha cancellation by the Department of outstanding trust patents for Indian allottees. It will be notad that the fact of the discovery of mineral upon an Indian allotment after the i33ue of the first or conditional patent, is not one of the grounds assigned by Congress for the cancellation of such patent. The Department is therefore of the opinion that the Indian allotment in question is not subject to attack and can not be contested or canceled for the reason that the land is |