The Fight for the River
Tensions mount over water rights as a local paper argues that irrigation for agricultural growth should take precedence over Indigenous fishing rights.
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.
The agent of Fort Simcoe, on the Yakima reservation, seems to think that irrigation enterprises along the Yakima and at least one of its tributaries must stop in order to leave the Indians under his charge undisturbed in their fishing operations along the streams. A few fishes for a few Indians are exploited as of far more importance than the watering of lands that will supply bread for the millions, Indians and all. The time has arrived when the North American red man must get down and dig for his living instead of sitting in the sun on the banks of a stream, fish-pole in hand. Let the Indian fish for a living with a hoe.
“The time has arrived when the North American red man must get down and dig for his living instead of sitting in the sun on the banks of a stream, fish-pole in hand.”
This editorial reflects the era's aggressive expansionist ideology that fueled the dispossession of the Yakama Nation. Today, the management of the Yakima River remains a central conflict between environmental conservation, tribal treaty rights, and agricultural industry, though the discourse has shifted toward acknowledging federal legal obligations and tribal sovereignty.
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