The Ahtanum Water Rights Dispute
Tensions mount between Yakima settlers and the reservation as water rights over the Ahtanum and Yakima rivers move toward potential litigation.
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.
Among the locals in today's Herald will be found the gist of a conversation with Agent Jay Lynch regarding the appropriation of water for irrigation purposes from the Ahtanum and Yakima rivers. The Indians have made complaint to the head of the department at Washington, and the matter has been given publicity by the press correspondents. While the subject is one of considerable moment, it does not present all of the serious phases indicated by Mr. Lynch. It is true that the treaty of '56 gave to the Indians the exclusive privilege of fishing in the boundary streams, but then it did not grant to them all of the water within the channels of said streams; in fact, the boundary lines only extend to the center of the boundary rivers and streams. As to turning all of the water of the Yakima into the canal of the irrigation company, the company never contemplated using more than 600 inches of water per second of the 1000 inches which flow down the Yakima. If this question is brought to a contest, neither the commissioner of Indian affairs nor the secretary will have the deciding of it, for it will be a matter of the courts, and there riparian rights will antedate any stipulation that the government may have seen proper to enter upon.
“Litigation, however, is a costly luxury, and if this can be obviated by a proper showing of facts before the department, it would be well worth the while of our citizens.”
This 1891 editorial captures the era's legal maneuvering against Indigenous sovereignty. It highlights how water rights have remained a foundational, often litigious, pillar of Yakima Valley development for over 130 years.
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