The Discards Part 1

The Discards.

by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter.

_Foreword_

An explanation is the only excuse for this little publication. =The Discards= were primarily to appear in the Second or Summer Season Number of =The American Indian Tepee=, a quarterly launched for the avowed purpose of combating the manifest evils of the Indian Bureau; the fraud and graft imposed with impunity on the child-minded tribesmen by the robber speculator, land thief and all round crooks who swarm the reservations; as well as creating a deeper sentiment of respect for the Red race by giving first hand the Indian side of life; his poetry, music, philosophy and tribal history.

As an adopted Yakima, the chief editors.h.i.+p was tendered me and was accepted with no thought of compensation other than the satisfaction of attempting to do something for a greatly maligned and hampered people.

The first editorial in the initiative number of the =Tepee=, reveals the faith that was placed in the declared purpose of the management, which would now appear as mere ostentation. This became more apparent as work on the second number progressed. Reproductions foreign to the vital Indian cause were given precedence over "fighting" originality; and when the Wolf =howled=, he was summarily =bounced= by the Fox, who then a.s.sumed full control as both manager and editor.

The contribution by =Hal-ish Ho-sat=: Klickitat for "Old Wolf"; was the first of a series of hitherto unpublished legends of the Yakimas and kindred tribes contemplated for the =Tepee=. This, with some editorials, one or two incomplete, were retained and made use of, while the =Discards=, a few in galley proof, were returned to me. The editorial explanation of my severance with the =Tepee= was in bad taste and my own card was censored to suit the drawing.

Perhaps the Wolf was too strenuous and the =Discards= had no place in =The Tepee's= pages. Doubtless the Manager will receive laudation from certain elements for his action; but believing it good at times that the public be made acquainted with disagreeable facts, such as contained in some of these rejects, they are here offered as mere samples of far reaching conditions. If "Elasticity of Indian Bureau Promises" appear unworthy of credence, there are the abandoned allotments, parched and dry, still in evidence, as well as voluminous correspondence on file in the Indian Department. The pie from the Indian Bureau bakery may look appetizing and palatable on the printed menu. Lift the crust! then--s.h.i.+eld your nose as you watch 'em crawl. The "consideration" from the honest business man for Poor Lo's heritage ofttimes shows glitteringly munificent. Insert the probe! gilded illusion--"mess of pottage"--vermin infested and stenchful.

And all this under a Government of the people ($), by the people ($$) and for the people ($$$).

=He-mene Ka-wan=: "Old Wolf".

(L. V. McWhorter).

July 23, 1920

_That "Same Old Howl"_

Many of the Yakimas are wondering how long it takes the Indian Department to make good a promise. Tribesmen have waited vainly the years for a consummation of pledges made, while others, sore at heart and foot weary have pa.s.sed over the Last Trail with thoughts embittered by the memory of wanton indifference, if not actual connivance of the Department officials in the brazen robberies which they have suffered.

Ugly, sombre facts have been unearthed in the no distant past, while others are incubating for an unsavory hatching.

Fraudulent land deals and theft of irrigation waters are common complaints. The riparian right to water established by long usage, is a joke when applied to the Indian. During the vital irrigation period of May, present year, the editor personally looked into conditions of one Indian ditch on the Ahtanum. Three Indian allottees, Louis Mann, William Adams and Joe Yemowat, dependent in part upon this ditch, had not been able to obtain a drop of water, while white renters above them had been receiving a full flow for a month. Mr. Clyde Stevens, a heavy renter, had "soaked" a forty acre field the second time, while two other renters were getting water galore. In one instance a secret way was discovered taking a heavy flow. In marked contrast to the luxuriant crops on these lands, were those of the Indians, parched and withered. While the Indian Department has no jurisdiction over the distribution of the water in this particular ditch it =does= have jurisdiction over the leased lands and has the power to evict any undesirable tenant. Why does it allow a water-hog to fatten at the expense of those whom it holds in its iron grasp? If the Injun "hollers" he is branded as a troublesome complainer and peace disturber. Intimidated and helpless, he suffers deep wrongs in stolid silence. A husky, in an altercation with one of the looters in question, took unreasonable abuse rather than come to blows. When asked why he did this, he replied:

"I am not afraid of him--the shrimp. I could break him in two. It is his law that I am afraid of. I know what an Injun would get in court. I have a family to live for. Our Agent is supposed to protect us in our rights.

He does nothing. He knows that the white man has no right to the water in this, our Injun ditch. He knows that it is being stolen from us. This white water thief is protected. He says that Mr. Carr is a fine man. Of course he should speak well of Mr. Carr. Look at this water thief's crop, this Mr. Stevens and others. They are fine while our crops are scorched for water. When only Injuns were on this ditch we had no trouble. All got water, dividing with each other. I was driven from the Medicine Valley country because Mr. Reece B. Brown stole all my water eleven years ago. The Indian Department knew of it, but the Department is afraid of Mr. Brown or stands in with him in that grab. I came over here on the Ahtanum to farm and now they steal my water here. The =Shoyahpoo= is a hog. He takes all and squeals for more."

It takes no careful observer to ride through the Ahtanum Reservation lands and pick out the Indian tilled lands from those of white owners and lessors. The former invariably present a withered appearance, while those of the whites show fine crops, resultant from sufficient water.

There may be exceptions to this rule, but the cases are few. One fair minded white man said, when questioned:

"The Indians get the dirty end of the water deal. The ditch tender has lands leased down near the lower end of the ca.n.a.l. He has, so he was heard to say, now finished irrigating his crops for the present, and turned his water to the orchards owned by whites. It is not right to have an interested man distributing this water."

[Ill.u.s.tration: =LOUIS CHARLES MANN=

Recognized Head of the Ahtanum Clan of Yakimas. From "The Crime Against the Yakimas." (Copyrighted)]

Mr. Lew Perkins is Ditch Tender for the Ahtanum section in controversy.

His crops on Indian leased lands show that they have suffered no dearth of water this season. It is hard to conceive that the Indian officials are blind to conditions so openly apparent. In 1916 the Ahtanum situation, the gross injustice suffered by these Indians in stolen water rights, was exposed in an ill.u.s.trated article in an eastern journal of 30,000 copies, under the caption: =The Continued Crime Against The Yakimas=. Promises from the powers that be was the only result. Louis Mann was referred to by Mr. Dorrington, Indian Inspector, as: "Howling the same old howl that he has put up for ten years." Does it redound to the credit of the Indian Department that one of its Wards should howl vainly for simple justice even for one year? Apropos to this question is the following letter. Mr. L. M. Holt is Chief Engineer, Indian Reclamation Service. Mr. Lee referred to is Supervisor of Ditches for the Yakima Agency.

L. M. Holt, Yakima, Wash., July 6th, 1920

Dear Mr. Holt:

I have been deprived from my irrigation waters, my neighbors steal my water and I have been studying where to make my report to, as you have all grades of employees on this irrigation system. As there is earth without water no living man can farm his dry lands in the Spring, and the white man has no better system in his body or being he is no better than I am why I write you so because he dies just the same as poor Injuns die so therefore I see why you turn all the water for his side and leave us dest.i.tute helpless. Do you be satisfied if I go up to the head gate and burst up the head gate and get my share of this irrigation waters for my crops. Is the white man looking for war path about this irrigation system? I am all time wondering where all these white people came from. They must have come where people are starving and they grab everything they come to. Where did they come from any way, from above the clouds or from h.e.l.l? This puzzles me. Everything they want to themselves, and they are hogging all the time. Their hunger for more money is not filled; they all time want more, and as I hear them often say "d.a.m.n the Indians" now, but where them white devils go when they do die, and who is the man on this earth can tell me I lie. Oh, no, I have been studying these subject for many years, white man ways of living is no good to me, I hate it but I cannot help it, as every year I am fussing about this irrigation system. Now the earth and water is all time here, but me, I shall be gone where everybody go time they do die, and I want to live right while living, now I am losing 5 acres in wheat and 6 acres in alfalfa, now who can protect my rights about this irrigation system. You want cash down every time and from the start my irrigation waters been cut short all time. Now I have six seven rows, that is all for my $60.00 and how do you expect any man to be a farmer that way. It seems to me the government is robbing me out of my money. I want to find out who is the man betrayed my rights on this irrigation system on this Ahtanum creek. Since all the Ahtanum creek is a reservation stream all the creek is ours in first place, and Secretary Garfield robbed us time he gave our water to the whites at the Ahtanum Academy. White ladies sang a song to him for more Hiyou Chuck. Was this fine scheme and now we are robbed today. Who will help us out. Mr. Lee has power to rob us out of our irrigation system, he is the man told the head gate man to shut off. I learn this from one of my white man friends. I remember one time of seeing Mr. Lee at old man Seluskin house time he told the old man Seluskin he was a man from Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C. to help the Indians on this reservation on the irrigation system, now this day this very same man is no help to us Injuns. I am not mad at him when I write you this. Now this irrigation system is too far beyond the law, don't you take me for a bunch of Coyotes. Look out, do what is right. I am a person just the same as whites are: we all live by eating same food, and I want to be in a right living while living on this earth. I was there in your office twice but you was gone. I want to see you but I do not know when. I shall see what can be done toward protecting our irrigation system on this Ahtanum valley, and you know this earth and water was here and thereon it was the Injuns, and this will be all.

I am your truly poor friend,

LOUIS MANN.

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 ma.s.ses 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 inst.i.tuted in the Federal Court for the recovery of this water, and a subsequent letter from the a.s.sistant 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 Ca.n.a.l would cover these lands "next year" in any event. Several "next years" have pa.s.sed 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 Ca.n.a.l; or by the storage system of Medicine Valley or Topp.e.n.i.sh 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 Ca.n.a.l 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" ca.n.a.l.

Not only this, but the ca.n.a.l 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 ca.n.a.l. The flimsy, half-sized flume constructed over the ca.n.a.l 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: =SIMON GEORGE REBUILDING WORTHLESS FLUME PLACED BY INDIAN SERVICE ACROSS WAPATO Ca.n.a.l=

Showing the Embankments of the Ca.n.a.l Which Completely Bars the Escape of Simon Goudy's Waste Water]

Approximately four acres of Goudy's land was taken by the ca.n.a.l right of way, soil being appropriated even beyond the fenced limits, leaving the surface so lowered as to swamp and become worthless. For this right of way, Goudy received not one dollar for either ground or damages sustained.

Running midway from west to east through Goudy's allotment is the dry bed of a small creek, which carries water contingent only on the heaviest snows of winter. The Wapato Ca.n.a.l completely blocks this water way, but a gap has been left in the west, or near embankment for the purpose of permitting any possible flow of the creek to enter the ca.n.a.l.

This of course allows the ca.n.a.l to empty into the dry bed, filling it to within a few hundred feet of Goudy's west line. This former dry depression, which Goudy always kept free from waste water, is thus converted into a veritable lagoon, unfordable and which in time will develop into a mosquito-breeding, willow-grown swamp.

Mr. Goudy irrigates his south forty acres from the Paiute Ditch, which was constructed by Indians under the supervision of James H. Wilbur, Agent, for the Paiute prisoners of war brought to the Yakima Reservation at the close of the Bannock uprising in 1878. The Paiutes running away, the ditch was turned over to the Yakimas by Agent Wilbur, and has been used by them unmolested during the intervening forty one years. Mr.