THE IK R IGA TIOX AGE. 191 



goods with the poorer Indians to the south of them not favored by ir- 

 rigation. They have learned readily at the government Indian School 

 and their progress towards modern civilization has been regarded as 

 one of the encouraging features of the Indian problem. During the 

 last ten years their irrigating water their life blood has been taken 

 away from them and they are perforce, lapsing into indolence, mis- 

 ery, and vice. 



The waters of the Gila, above them, have been diverted by white 

 settlers and instead of waving fields of green, they now, during the 

 summer, look out upon the dry parched earth. Year after year they 

 plowed, and sowed and irrigated their crops, only to see them wither 

 and die before maturity owing to lack of sufficient irrigation water 

 in the dryer months. A few who are favorably located at points 

 where water appears in the dry bed of the Gila, can still mature their 

 crops, others can eke out a bare existence by hauling wood or other 

 precarious employments while the larger number have become more 

 or less dependent upon charity or have degenerated into thieves and 

 vagabonds. 



About 6,000 of these Indians are dependent upon the lands of the 

 Reservation which contains 350,000 acres, while the water supply in 

 the Gila last year, owing to use for lands above, has not been sufficient 

 to irrigate 1,000 acres belonging to the Indians. Fully half the crops 

 planted have not produced enough for seed, notwithstanding the 

 great fertility of the soil. Two acres per Indian of irrigated land, has 

 been shown by competent authority, as ample land for their use and 

 comfort. 



Government engineers have pointed out the solution of the prob- 

 lem through the building of a storage reservoir on the Gila which will 

 supply water not only for the Pimas, but for thousands of other In- 

 dians whom the government could then move to this reservation and 

 commence the process of education and agricultural civilization. 

 Statesmen have urged upon the government the necessity for such 

 action, from standpoints of justice, humanity and even economy, but 

 thus far Congress has turned a careless ear to such entreaties. Had 

 the Indians been private American citizens, they could have claimed 

 their rights and enforced them, but being wards of the nation, others 

 have come in and taken their water to which they have had undisputed 

 title for four hundred years, and the government turns indifferently 

 away even directing its attention to new wards thousands of miles dis- 

 tant; while its original friends and allies are left to steal and beg an 

 existence or starve. 



The United States has expended large sums of money for the in- 

 troduction of irrigation on the Indian reservations where it is desired 



