The River Fight
Citizens and a private irrigation firm clash with an Indian Agent over the damming of the Yakima River.
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.
On Friday afternoon of last week, in response to the request of Paul Schulze, a meeting of citizens was held in the rooms of the Yakima club regarding objections in the Indian department to the dam which the N. P., Y. & K. Irrigation Co. has constructed across the Yakima river. Fred R. Reed presided and called upon Mr. Schulze, who outlined the company's plans and stated they needed the harmonious cooperation of the citizens. He noted that Indian Agent Jay Lynch had taken a position against their projects, even writing to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington. Agent Lynch’s letter of October 31, 1891, stated: 'I don’t think the dam will seriously interfere with the rights of the Indians... in regard to fishing... but the principal objection is that the irrigation ditch is so large, they are afraid that it will take nearly all the water from the river.' Lynch warned that the company appeared capable of diverting all water during the irrigation season and that if Indian rights were to be maintained, he would require a company of soldiers to exclude trespassers.
“The agent has a continual fight on every foot of the boundary lines of the reservation, and if the rights of the Indians are to be maintained, I will want a company of soldiers to exclude stock and trespassers of all kinds.”
This 1892 dispute over water rights and riparian access mirrors ongoing tensions in the Yakima Basin today. Water scarcity and the competing needs of agriculture, tribal treaty rights, and environmental health remain a defining, unresolved civic struggle in the region.
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