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IRRIGATION PROJECT, COLORADO RIVER INDIAN

RESERVATION.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1919.

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met, pursuant to the call of the chairman, at 10.30 o'clock a. m., in room 226, Senate Office Building, Senator Charles Curtis presiding.

Present: Senators Curtis (chairman), La Follette, Gronna, Fernald, McNary, Nelson, McCormick, Ashurst, and Nugent.

There appeared before the committee Prof. Wilford Winsor and Col. Ben Franklin Fly, of Yuma County, Ariz.

The committee had under consideration the following bill and report:

[S. 291, Sixty-sixth Congress, first session.]

A BILL For the survey and allotment of lands within the Colorado River Indian Reservation in the States of Arizona and California for the disposal of the surplus lands after allotment, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he hereby is, authorized and directed to cause all unsurveyed lands within the Colorado River Indian Reservation in the States of Arizona and California to be surveyed and to make allotments in severalty under existing laws to all Indians entitled to allotment on said reservation who have not heretofore been allotted: Provided, That the said Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to reserve from allotment or other disposition such lands as he may deem necessary for agency, school, or religious purposes, to remain reserved so long as needed and as long as agency, school, or religious institutions are maintained thereon for the benefit of the Indians: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, issue a patent in fee simple to the duly authorized missionary board or other proper authority of any religious organization heretofore engaged in mission or school work on said reservation for such lands thereon as have been or may be set apart for such organization for mission or school purposes, not exceeding, however, 10 acres to any one such organization, and not including any lands in any town site within said reservation.

SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, shall cause all lands within the said Colorado River Indian Reservation which have not been allotted in severalty to Indians, reserved for administrative purposes, or otherwise disposed of, to be classified by the smallest legal subdivision of forty acres each, or fractional lots, into three classes, namely, irrigable land, nonirrigable land, and mineral land, and shall cause the lands classified as irrigable lands to be appraised according to the value of the respective tracts, which in no case shall be less than $10 per acre. The mineral land within the said reservation and the lands classified as nonirrigable shall not be appraised, but shall be subject to disposal as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 3. That sections sixteen, nineteen, thirty-two, and thirty-six of the land in each township within the said Colorado River Indian Reservation shall not be subject to entry under the provisions of this act, but are hereby granted to 3

the States of Arizona and California, respectively, in support of the common schools of the said States, and shall be paid for by the United States at the rate of $10 per acre for all lands classified as irrigable, and at the rate of $1.25 per acre for all lands classified as nonirrigable: Provided, however, That no mineral lands shall pass to either of said States under the grant herein made, and, in case such sections sixteen, nineteen, thirty-two, and thirty-six, or any part thereof, are lost to either of said States by reason of allotment in severalty to Indians or otherwise, the governor of each said respective States, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, is hereby authorized to locate other lands of equal area and of the same class as that lost to the said States, not exceeding, however, four additional sections in any one township, and the lands hereby granted to the said States shall be paid for by the United States as hereinafter provided, in quantity equal to the loss to the Indians of said reservation by reason of this grant of their lands to the States of Arizona and California: Provided, That the selection and designation of land due the said respective States hereunder shall be made prior to the opening of any of the lands within the said reservation to settlement and entry.

SEC. 4. That before any of the lands are disposed of, as hereinafter provided, and before the States of Arizona and California shall be permitted to select or locate any lands to which said States may be entitled under the provisions of this act, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to reserve and set apart for town-site purposes such tracts as in his opinion may be required for the future public interests, and he may cause the same to be surveyed into lots, blocks, streets, alleys, and parks, and the lots within any town site established hereunder may be disposed of in accordance with such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. And the said Secretary of the Interior is further authorized to set apart and reserve for school, park, and other public purposes not more than twenty acres in any one town site and patents shall issue for the lands so set apart for school, park, or other public purposes, to the municipality legally charged with the care and custody of lands donated for such purposes: Provided, That the purchase price of all town lots sold within town sites as herein provided shall be paid at such times and in such installments as the Secretary of the Interior may direct, and the net proceeds derived from the sale of such town lots shall be placed to the credit of the Indians of the Colorado River Indian Reservation as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 5. That for the construction of an irrigation system, including such dam or dams as may be necessary, for the acquisition of rights of way and the purchase of such lands as may be required, for the purpose of securing an appropriation of water for the irrigation of approximately one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land within the Colorado River Indian Reservation, as provided by the act of April 4, 1910 (Thirty-sixth Statutes at Large, page 273), there is hereby appropriated the sum of $500,000, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, which sum shall be reimbursed to the United States from the sale of water rights under the system to be constructed hereunder, as hereinafter directed.

SEC. 6. That upon completion of the irrigation project herein authorized all tands within the said Indian reservation which shall not have been allotted In severalty to Indians, reserved for administrative purposes, or otherwise disposed of shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation of the President, which proclamation shall prescribe the time when and the manner in which these lands may be settled upon, occupied, and entered, and no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy, or enter any of said lands except as prescribed in such proclamation: Provided, however, That the price of said lands classified as irrigable lands shall be the appraised price thereof as fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, which in no case shall be less than $10 per acre, payable as follows: One-fifth of the appraised value thereof at the time of entry and the remainder in five annual installments, payable one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from and after the date of entry or filing. Upon completion of the payments herein provided for and compliance with the homestead laws as to settlement and submission of final proof the entryman shall be entitled to a patent for the lands entered.

SEC. 7. That in addition to the payments provided for in the foregoing, all entrymen of lands to be irrigated from the system herein provided for shall pay a proportionate per acre part of the cost of the construction, operation, and maintenance of the system herein authorized, and the per acre charge for the construction of such system shall be divided into twenty installments, payable annually under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the

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