Chapter 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 destitute 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 hell? 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 "Damn 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 Washington, 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 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.

Showing the Embankments of the Canal Which Completely Bars the Escape of
Simon Goudy's Waste Water]

Approximately four acres of Goudy's land was taken by the canal 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 Canal 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 canal. This of course allows the canal 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. Goudy built his own lateral more than a quarter of a century ago. This year, during the vital irrigating season of May, three several "ditch tenders" called upon him, ordering him not to use such a volume of water, although water was running waste down the main creek bed. The Indian refused to obey the injunction. It appeared to him that it was not enough that he had been despoiled of water for half of his ranch by a seemingly upheld thief, but the Government was now bent on ruining, or confiscating his remaining water supply. The danger point had been reached and the "ditch tenders" were afterwards conspicuous by their absence on the Goudy lateral. Perhaps the "tenders" had a vision of an outraged Indian with a Winchester near that same spot on a former occasion, when the foreman of the railroad construction gang suddenly realized that his health was in jeopardy should he insist too strenuously on entering Goudy's field before settlement of right of way damages.

Robbed of His Medicine Valley Ditch Eleven Years Ago, 40 Acres of His
Ranch, Where Once He Harvested 892 Sacks of Fine Wheat, Is Now, Thanks
to Indian Bureau Efficiency, a Desert Waste of Drifting Sands and
Useless Sage.]

As stated, Mr. Goudy has no outlet for his waste drainage, and about four acres of growing wheat and alfalfa became flooded in consequence. This he saved by cutting the canal bank, the overflow escaping through the vent. Earlier in the season and before irrigation, I had, at the instance of Mr. Goudy, called the attention of the Indian Service Engineer, Mr. L. M. Holt, to the fact that Mr. Goudy had not been provided with an outlet for his waste flow; and the reply was: "We do not expect him to have any waste water." It was not known at that time that an attempt would be made to curtail his Paiute source of water.

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.

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