As a substance of fact no white man has a right to any of the water from this Indian ditch, yet year after year the thefts go on unpunished. Is it any wonder that the Indian has learned to look upon the Agent as a conniver with the white man to loot and despoil him of his own? The lame excuse that such things go on unknown to the Indian officials is to be taken with a mountain of allowance. These Ahtanum Indians have for years clamored for justice, and have in turn been branded by the inspectors as "howlers." Such treatment makes Bolshevik and I. W. W. of white people.
Elasticity of Indian Bureau Promises
NOTE: This article was added to after discardure by the Tepee.
There is an unmistakable national wide agitation looking to the complete abolition of the Indian Bureau. The insistent outcry of the Indian against flagrant injustice suffered at the hands of this political incubus with its army of 7,000 employees, is reaching the rank and file of the people and already the Czars are visioning the handwriting on the wall. But as yet the masses know practically nothing about reservation conditions, know nothing about the inner workings of the Agencies, know nothing about the blundering incompetency if not down-right dishonesty of many of the acting officials. Methods employed in letting grazing permits to outside stockmen, leasing of agricultural lands and the distribution of irrigation water, too often appear shady and questionable. On the Yakima Reservation, Wash., water rights of long standing have been ignored, the entire flow of Indian constructed canals seized upon, confiscated by the Department or openly stolen by unprincipled scoundrels who apparently have a stand in with the "higher ups." Why foster a Bureau which will tolerate and countenance such brazen and uncovered thievery of the only means by which an Indian can make use of his lands? A Bureau under which apparently a rich and powerful "System" has sprung up and is operating. A single case:
Near White Swan, nine Indian eighty acre allotments were receiving water from a ditch of their own construction, tapping Medicine Valley. Indian homes were established on all these tracts, each irrigating from ten to sixty acres. Some had planted small orchards, others were gardening and raising grain. About eleven years ago, one Reece B. Brown bought at a low figure the Umtouch allotment on the west, the first receiving water from the ditch. Mr. Brown, who has been connected with divers litigations connected with Reservation deals, boldly appropriated (?) all the water from the lower eight allotments, diverting it to his own land which was planted to orchard. The Agent knew of the "appropriation." He did nothing—for the Indians. I personally called the attention of the Acting Engineer of the Indian Reclamation Service to the robbery. An "investigator" looked the situation over. Looked, and nothing more. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs was appealed to. An investigation and promises—nothing more. The aid of the Secretary of the Interior was invoked. An "investigation" and more promises—nothing more. In 1913 I was told by Superintendent Carr that suit had been instituted in the Federal Court for the recovery of this water, and a subsequent letter from the Assistant Indian Commissioner in reply to an inquiry, stated that such suit was "pending." The case has never progressed beyond this "pending" stage. Evidently the "pending" cord was most carefully selected for its stretching and wearing qualities. Is the Indian Bureau a party to the crime? Or is it only afraid of the reputed millionaire water "appropriator"? So far the "investigations" have all been conducted by the Indian Bureau officials only. Will a higher tribunal be invoked before another Planting Moon shall have arrived?
In 1916 a very full account of this most disgusting affair was given by me in an eastern journal of 30,000 copies, under the caption: The Continued Crime Against The Yakimas. This brought out a feeble renewal of never-to-be-kept-promises from the Department. Water by the Wapato Canal would cover these lands "next year" in any event. Several "next years" have passed and these lands are still powder-dry, while the orchards planted on the Umtouch allotment have flourished and brought returns, nourished by stolen water. The other eight allotments are also producing—fine second growth desert sage. The houses are tumbling to decay, the fencing in some instances disappearing beneath the drifting sand dunes—fitting monument to the cowardly, vacillating policy of an obsolete Bureau.
Of late the Department has ignored all local letters touching Brown's seizure of the Indian water and the "pending" suit, but goaded and cornered by a Boston philanthropist, the Hon. Cato Sells while not conceding a crime, has agreed that the water "diminished" in that particular ditch; but points pridefully to Departmental activity in bringing water to the lands "this season" by the Wapato Canal; or by the storage system of Medicine Valley or Toppenish Creek "next year." Nay more! another "investigation" by Supt. Carr and Federal District Attorney, Francis H. Garrecht, actually took place in a Yakima hotel lobby last spring, where it was found that: "Differences of opinion between white settlers and Indians regarding Water rights along Medicine Creek have arisen;" and that "it is probable that cases which have already been in court will again have to come up for adjudication." Later in response to an inquiry, Mr. Garrecht intimates that some time and some where some body may be summoned to give testimony in a possible suit against the Reservation Water Hog.
During all these weary years, the Indians, who have not died, have been buoyed up by these worthless and hollow promises of "water next year;" inducing some of them, especially Luke Wappet, to repeatedly plant fields only to meet with disappointment and loss of both seed and labor. Wappet had sixty acres under cultivation until Brown stole the Indian ditch dry. Last spring I saw him toiling on a ditch hoping to bring water from another source, but met with failure. His wheat crop withered and blasted as on former occasions.
Forty acres of Simon Goudy's allotment lies just east of the Wappet tract, and on the extreme tail of the looted Medicine Valley ditch. Goudy had this north forty under cultivation, now returned to desert sage and weeds. Instead of this land being covered by the Wapato Canal as repeatedly promised, the waterway has been constructed along the east line of his ranch, which irrigates from the west. Goudy cannot irrigate the fraction of an acre from this "bring-water-to-you-next-year" canal. Not only this, but the canal embankment completely closes all avenue of escape for waste water from his south forty acres, heretofore utilized by his neighbor, Simon George, Indian, whose land adjoins him on the east. Simon George received his water through Goudy's lateral, which was severed by the canal. The flimsy, half-sized flume constructed over the canal by the Indian Service for the purpose of a waterway, broke down within a few hours after water had been turned into it. Mr. George was compelled to rebuild the flume, enlarging it to capacity at his own expense. His loss in damaged crops because of this delay was not inconsiderable.