The Settler's Victory Against the Northern Pacific
A landmark Secretary of the Interior decision in 1888 effectively blocked the Northern Pacific Railroad from seizing 'indemnity' lands held by Washington homesteaders.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2—The Secretary of the Interior today rendered a decision in the case of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company against a settler named Miller. The Secretary holds, briefly, that when the map of the main line was filed and accepted in 1870, the general route was fixed, and the statutory withdrawal of lands became operative. The statutory withdrawal having once been put in operation, its authority was exhausted; the route could not be amended or changed except by legislative authority. As Miller's land was not within the limits of the statutory withdrawal under the lawful map of 1870, it remained public land, subject to settlement.
The railroad company had selected Miller's land as 'indemnity' for lands lost within the Yakima Indian reservation. However, the Secretary ruled that the company is not entitled to such indemnity for lands within the reservation that passed to it by its grant. The effect of this decision is far-reaching and will affect many cases now pending in the General Land Office, potentially protecting a million and a half acres of land from being claimed by the railroad company.
“The attempt to change the general route by the map of 1872 was without authority of law.”
This 1888 land battle mirrors today’s ongoing tensions over corporate land control and housing development in Washington. Just as settlers fought the Northern Pacific to keep their homesteads, contemporary residents struggle against the displacement caused by the concentrated power of modern large-scale developers.
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