The Reservation Divided: A Land Rush on Yakima Ground
Federal appraisers prepare to open 1.2 million acres of the Yakima Indian Reservation to homesteaders, a transfer North Yakima hopes will bring a stampede of settlers.
NORTH YAKIMA—Announcement has just been made by the Department of the Interior that the Yakima Indian Reservation, containing 1,200,000 acres of agricultural and grazing land, will be opened for homestead entry, probably the coming season. Government appraisers are now at work classifying and appraising the land under the heads of agricultural, grazing, timber and mineral land.
With the opening of this immense tract to public entry almost the last parcel of public land passed from Uncle Sam's domain.
Over 300,000 people registered for the opening of the Flathead, Spokane and Coeur d'Alene reservations in the summer of 1909, and the people of this city are making arrangements for the entertainment of a proportionate number here this year.
“With the opening of this immense tract to public entry almost the last parcel of public land passed from Uncle Sam's domain.”
The opening of the Yakima Indian Reservation was part of a broader wave of Indigenous dispossession that remade Washington's land map. Today, treaty rights, water allocation and land return remain live issues across the Yakama Nation's homeland and the rural West.
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