The Land Along Chamokane Creek Was About to Change Hands
Stevens County commissioners back a plan to open ten sections of the Spokane Indian Reservation to homesteaders who 'cannot afford to buy better land.'
Ten sections of agricultural lands on the Spokane Indian Reserve will be open for settlement next fall if Senator Piles' recommendations are followed. The commissioners of Stevens County have seconded the move. This land lies along Chamokane Creek and is said to be comparatively level and covered with scattering timber. The soil is a sandy loam, containing enough clay to make it valuable for fruit-raising and vegetables. While it is not the best grain or farming land, farmers who cannot afford to buy better land will make good homes on it.
“While it is not the best grain or farming land, farmers who cannot afford to buy better land will make good homes on it.”
The item is written as a kindness — cheap land for farmers who cannot buy better — while quietly describing the transfer of reservation ground to homesteaders. That framing was the everyday mechanism of Indigenous dispossession, and its consequences echoed for generations on the Spokane Reservation. The same questions of treaty rights and who may use the land remain live today.
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