Thus we see how Simon Goudy, allottee, has been damaged thousands of dollars, as land values are computed in that section, how he has suffered not only at the hands of an unrestrained water-thief, but also from the very Bureau officials sworn to protect him in his vested rights as a Ward of the Government. He recalls bitterly how he was refused patent for his south forty acres when the White Swan branch of the N. P. Railroad was under construction, when he thought by realizing on it as a town site. Soon after he was waited on by a committee of "business men" who assured him that they could easily obtain the coveted patent for him, provided he first contract the land to them. Now, that there is no longer an opportunity to realize on it as a town site, he is importuned by the Bureau to accept a patent and become a full fledged citizen of—his own native land.
Can the most prejudiced of "Indian haters" find excuse for the treatment accorded Simon Goudy by the Indian Department? And yet there are other potential facts which would lend color to Goudy's contention that he has incurred the divine displeasure of the Bureau officials and has been singled out as an object of dirt and spite. As incredulous as this may seem there are grounds for the conjecture. Petty annoyances and discriminations suffered by Goudy are many and manifold. The Agency thrasher has more than once refused to thrash his crop until all others were attended to. Last year it passed and repassed his stack yard, compelling him at additional cost of time and money to procure another machine lest his grain damage by possible rain as on a former occasion.
But Mr. Goudy is not the only allottee to suffer by this "past-all-understanding" methods of the Indian Service. There are other Yakimas on the Paiute Ditch. Louis Mann has two inherited eighties below the Goudy lateral and this year has experienced unlooked for trouble. The Wapato Canal carries water to the Paiute, and a charge has been levied against the water users. The Agency claims that not more than one fifth of the water used is now supplied by the Paiute source, but a fairer estimate would place it at one half. The Indians contend that they have always had sufficient water from the Paiute alone, that the Indian Service has seized upon their forty-one year-old ditch without their knowledge or consent, and are now charging them for water which they can not get in sufficient quantity for their crops. Personal observation discloses the astounding fact that the head gate of the Mann lateral is under lock and key, that the intake is at a very low pressure, affording a water supply inadequate for the crops planted, and not on par with the money demanded of him by the Departmental authorities; while lower down on the Paiute the lateral head gate in use by whites is without lock and is under an exceedingly high pressure, insuring to the users thereof the full and unlimited control of their own water supply. Can any fair minded citizen blame an Indian for putting up "the same old howl that he has howled for the last ten years?" Apropos to the foregoing facts are the following communications which are self-explanatory. The Neekass Canal is the Paiute Ditch. The name used is that pertaining to the surrounding country: "where horses were left."
INDIAN WATER USERS OF THE PIUTE DITCH IN COUNCIL
WHITE SWAN, WASH., May 28, 1920.
Mr. DON M. CARR:
At this meeting today, We Protest and Oppose to Reclamation Service to enter their water into Our Neekass Ditch. Let Reclamation keep out from our Neekass Canal. Our Flood Water We have been using this water from the Simcoe Creek for 41 years, And our Prior Riparian Rights was there Before Reclamation Service Came. Indians used this Simcoe Creek Water for 41 years now, We want you to Protect our Rights. We are shamed to see this Reclamation Let our crops go to hell, what kind of people are these Reclamation Service where do they come from, they are all to crush us down and what can we do to save our crops, we are trying our best to do what is right, Our Great Father of Washington D. C. want to see us be a farmers that is us Injuns but not to take away our water with which we been Irrigating our lands for 41 years, and where ever the Reclamation Service constructed the Ditches at their own funds, and we do not kick about it we are willing to pay the assessments to the water charges but here we hate to bring an Injunction Suit to the Reclamation Service. I want you to see and to protect our rights, You do not want to see me and my neighbors be loosing our crops, Because the Reclamation Service are the only persons to live on this Earth they are hungry after the Dollars and their hunger is not filled. We do bitterly here Protest and Oppose to see our ditch be Grabbed away, and let us go to hell and of course where the reclamation service build their own ditches, and it is their own sole rights to collect the assessment from the Lands watered, but not on this Ditch which we have been using for 41 years can you do any Assistance? I am feeling very bad I hate to loose my hard labor and seed, I want you to stop Interfering Our rights let the Reclamation Service leave us all alone.
Sincerely your friend
LOUIS MANN,
Simon Goudy, George Simon, Shepherd Peter, and Guy Howard took this letter to Mr. Carr.