Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-12-14
FOR IRRIGATION.
Steps will Probably be Taken by Con-
gress for Scientific Test
of 1rregation.
Move will be Along the Lines Suggest
ed by the Recent Irrigation
Congress.
Instances in Which Practical Wor
Might be Done with Great
Accruing Benefits.

AAoHS Cuc lllleS uISCuSSeu ny Gen-
eral e. A. Williams in the Tribune of
Il few days ago, comes the following
Washington special to the Minneapo-
lis Times which will be Of general in
terest in the west:
THE proceedings of the fifty-sev-
ent.l congress will be watched with
unusual interest by the citizens of this
country west of the Mississippi in the
expectation OF legislation in behalf of
irrigation. The national congress OF
lrrigators which recently met in Chi
cago. was largely attended and an en-
thusiastic body, differing from other
meetings of thus organization in that
1T was harmonious and united. The
expressed sentiment of this congress
was for national appropriations to con-
struct reservoirs on government sites,
to set aside forever the timbered slopes
OF the mountains, and to begin at once
the reforestation of those tracts which
nave been cleared, either by fire or by
the AK of the timber thieves. With a
greater wisdom than has been evil
denced by this congress in the past,
at the last meeting two distinct pro-
positions were advocated and will be
strenuously urged before congress.
Both OF these propositions were fully
described in the Times over a year
ago and both were pointed out, at the
time, as the best to urge before con-
gress. Heretofore, a spirit of jeal-
ousy, pardonable, no doubt, and easily
understood, has pervaded the debates
Of the irrigation congress, each dele
gate urging the greater Importance of
pet project for his own state until
the aggregate appropriation required
to satisfy all, amounted to such an
enormous sum that the wiser heads
saw at once it would ruin all to pre-
sent them to congress.
"Centering the whole influence of
this representative gathering of west
erners upon two irrigation PROPOSE
tions, in each of which the necessity
OF Immediate action is recognized as
imperative, assures at least favorable
and early consideration by congress.
SAN CARLOS DAM.
"The nrst of these, fully described
in the Times of last February, is the
building of the San Carlos dam on the
Gila river in Arizona. The estimate
OF the cost of this project, as furnished
ny the engineers of the geographical
survey, is $1,U,o,926 Living below
this reservoir site are nearly 5000 In
dlans, for the past few years pension
ers on the county of the nation, but
previous to which time they were al
ways independent and self-supporting.
THE Plnas, Papagos and Maricopas
are dependent for their subsistence
upon the lands of the Gila reserva-
ton, which reservation contains :357,-
12O acres. This land is arid, but
more than half of this entire area
could be maze productive with water
to irrigate it, The present supply
lowing in the CHA at the point of di-
version for this reservation, is not
sufficient to irrigate ! 900 acres. Until
recently these Indians have obtained
water enough for their needs and have
neither asked for nor received aid from
the government. These conditions
We're wholly changed by the diversion
OF the water at point above the res
ervation near the town of Florence,
since which diversion the circnm-
stances of the Indians have become pit
liable in the extreme. Once prosperous
contentod agricultural and pastoral
people, today they are rapidly degen-
Grating into race of idle and vicious
nomads,
This nation owes debt of graft
tude to these Indians, for through all
the years of our strife with the treach-
erous Apaches, the white man has
ever found safe haven with them.
The law of priority as well as simple
justice, both demand that we restore
to them that which was theirs CEN
tury before the white man came into
their lives.
Besides restoring to the Indians
the water required for the cultivation
of their lands, the construction of the
San Carlos dam will supply sufficient
water to irrigate an immense tract of
good land outside the reservation and