A movement has been inaugurated to save what little remains. In this humane work the Indian Rights Association and the Board of Indian Commissioners, as well as the Indian Office, have all played prominent parts. When Hon. F. H. Abbott became acting Commissioner he made a study of this subject, and later, as Secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners, he prepared an exhaustive paper entitled, “Briefs on Indian Irrigation and Indian Forests.” This was presented to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, February 9th, 1914. It covers the entire irrigation problem, and I insert most of it herewith.
“The proposed amendment relating to Indian irrigation, you will observe, is sweeping in character. Its main and central purpose is to stop the gratuitous use of tribal and Government funds in the construction and maintenance of irrigation projects, to charge the costs thereof against the lands benefited or against the pro rata shares in the tribal funds, when distributed, of the individual Indians whose lands are benefited, and to give the Indians a voice in the expenditure of their own funds for irrigation purposes and make them share the responsibility of maintaining and operating the completed projects. If this amendment is enacted into law nearly $400,000 carried each year in the Indian appropriation acts as gratuity items will become reimbursable. The facts relating to existing irrigation law and practice and arguments in support of the proposed amendment are fully elaborated in the brief submitted herewith, to which I invite your careful attention.
“The proposed amendment relating to the care, protection, and sale of Indian timber is also supported by a carefully prepared statement, herewith submitted. This amendment, if enacted into law, will save the Government in the neighborhood of $75,000 a year. * * * *
“The difficulties of the complex problems relating to the education and civilization of the Indians of this country and to the handling of their vast property resources are increasing in direct ratio with the increase in the value of that property and the individualization thereof.
“The eyes cannot be closed to the constantly increasing administrative burdens of the Indian Bureau. This increase can not be explained away on the ground of alleged bad administration; it is due, in large part, to the carrying out of laws enacted by Congress for the breaking up of the vast tribal estates of the Indians and to the establishment of the policy of individualization in connection therewith. Before the volume of the business of the Indian Bureau will begin to grow less, it will become very much greater; and the value of Indian property over which the Indian Bureau is required by law to exercise supervision, now estimated at nearly one billion dollars, will undoubtedly be very much greater before it begins to grow less.
“How is the Government going to meet this growing problem? Will Congress increase appropriations to meet the increased demands imposed by law and changing economic conditions upon the Indian Bureau? Is there any other way out?
“Those who answer by saying, ‘Give the Indians immediate citizenship and full control of their property and thus keep down the appropriations for Indian administration,’ offer a correct solution only for that class of Indians who are sufficiently educated and advanced in civilization to accept the full responsibility for handling their property. Accepting this solution for that class of Indians—and it is undoubtedly the correct solution for this class—it still remains true that the increasing value of the lands and minerals and forests on Indian reservations which are still closed to settlement, and of the property of individual Indians who are still unprepared to protect it, and the future individual allotment of lands to nearly 50 per cent of the Indians of the country, will make the administration of Indian Affairs for some years to come one of increasing difficulty and expense. * * * *
“The reclamation of arid lands on Indian reservations by irrigation, to provide better homes for Indian families, and to bring to them the benefits of civilized society through the agricultural development of their lands, is one of the most beneficent policies the Government has ever inaugurated in dealing with their affairs. Too much credit can not be given to Senators and Congressmen and administrative officers of the Government who have had to do with the enactment of laws and the securing of appropriations to carry out this policy. The motives of legislators have been benevolent and patriotic, and the work of the Government engineers and other officials who have constructed the projects has been honest and comparatively efficient and economical. However, a careful examination of Indian irrigation laws and conditions prevailing in connection with their administration reveals defects which need remedy. It is no reflection upon the high motives of those responsible for present law and present conditions that these defects exist. It was a new legislative and administrative field. Irrigation laws were not uniform in the several States. Conditions varied on different Indian reservations. The legislation was necessarily experimental. Nevertheless, the defects are serious, they should be faced frankly, and the remedies needed should be applied promptly to preserve the good in the existing order of things and eliminate the bad before greater harm results.
“Lack of uniformity in Indian irrigation laws, lack of utilization by Indians of their irrigated lands, lack of a voice on the part of the Indians in the expenditure of their funds for the construction and maintenance of their irrigation projects, and failure to individualize the reclamation costs by charging them against the lands benefited are the most serious fundamental defects of the present situation.
“Approximately nine million dollars have been expended for the irrigation of Indian lands. About seven millions of this amount have been charged to tribal funds and the balance expended from gratuity appropriations made by Congress. About 600,000 acres of irrigable Indian lands have been brought under ditch. Of this area less than 100,000 acres are being irrigated by Indians, while a large part of the area thus irrigated is not farmed, but is used to produce hay crops. And, notwithstanding the fact that either tribal or Government funds have been used to irrigate these lands, on all except three reservations, when patents in fee are issued to Indian allottees, and in every case where their lands are sold under the supervision of the Government, either the individual Indian who sells the land or the purchaser thereof puts in his pocket the value of the water right for which the tribe or the Government has paid; and not only are the members of the tribe not consulted with respect to the expenditure of their money, which ultimately passes in this manner either to the individual allottee or to the white purchaser of his land, but the individual whose land is benefited is given no opportunity to assume any responsibility in connection therewith or to appreciate the value of the benefit conferred, while the free-water right thus secured by the individual Indian offers a constant inducement to him to part with his land.