Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-24
IKRIGATYNG INDIAN LANDS.
Plans for That Work Provided for by Con.
gress Now Being Considered

gress Now Being Considered.
An appropriation Of ssO.OO0 was made BY
the last Congress for the construction. pur-
chase and use Of irrigating machinery and ap-
pliances in Arizona, Montana and Nevada for
the uses of Indian reservations. The expendi-
ture Of this money was placed under the con-
troll of the Secretary Of the Interior. Indian
Commissioner Morgan considers that this ap-
preparation will be Of great advantage to the
Indians in enabling them to engage more ex-
tensively in agriculture than has been possible
with the limited supply Of water in that part
Of the country. He has recently received q
letter from Prof. F. A. Gulley, the director of
connected with the University Of Arizona, pro-
posing that the bureau provide the means to
equip a pumping plant on the Pima reserva-
tlon In Arizona to irrigate an area Of land from
800 to 600 acres or more and place the carrying
out OF the work, including planting the land,
under his charge, subject to the general super.
vision of the Indian office.
AN UNDERGROUND srREAM
He states that underlying q considerable por-
tion OF the Pima reservation ,at depth Of from
twenty to fifty feet, is an inexhaustible supply
OF water, in fact, an underground stream. He
says that In small way 1t has been demon
strated that this water may be raised by steam
pumps and proftably used for irrigating farm
crops. He proposes that an area Of land be
cultivated. the labor being performed by the
Indians. who are to be paid for their services.
such a farm, he adds, may be made self
supporting after being fully equipped and
started, and we believe 1t possible, after en-
pioy1ng Indians for one or two years in the
several lines of work carried on on such farm,
to induce Indian families to take ten or twenty
acres OF land and work it on their own respon-
sibllity, with water supplied to them, and
eventually the small holdings may be sold OF
patented to heads of families, and in
s,v;1,,sa Sms THIS tribe .IDs changed from half.
OF beings to An intelligent industrious, land
owning people" Gen. Morgan has asked Prof.
Guuey to submit more in detail his plan for
doing this work. By direction of the Secre-
tary OF the Interior an officer Of the geological
survey ls making an examination of the Indian
Reservations In the territories named for the
purpose OF determining upon some plan for
expending the money appropriated
ON THE GROW REsERvATIoN.
Congress also provided in the agreement
with the Crow Indians for irrigation in the
valleys Of the Big and Little Horn rivers and
on Pryor creek and other streams in the Crow
country, and the necessary surveys are now
being made.
In pursuance Of the same policy as outlined
by Congress, as we'll as by direct authority Of
that body, Gen. Morgan has granted the right
of way through the Fort Hall reservation in
Idaho to canal company, 80 that the canal
which has been constructed to the border Of
the reservation can be continued through the
reservation to the town of PocateIlo. It is the
intention of the commissioner Of Indian affairs
to settle the Indians along the canal At
present this country is a desert but the water
supply will in short time transform the land
into fertile fields, as WAS done by the irriRating
system established by the Mormons farther
south in the territory Of Utah.