Some of the military and scientific expeditions to the Southwest in early times found the Pima, Maricopa, Papago, Pueblo and other Indians in possession of large, cultivated fields. With the influx of white settlers in the later ’70’s and early ’80’s, not only was much of this land appropriated by the Whites, but the water was diverted, thus causing the Indians great privations. I have referred elsewhere in this book to the case of the Pimas, and that of the Maricopas, Yumas and Pueblos, and it has been commented upon in a score of reports. Briefly summed up, we have well-nigh destroyed (or rather appropriated) the entire irrigation zone formerly controlled by the Indians. Their fields and ditches have passed to us. 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.