To Pay for the Ditches, the Yakamas Were Asked to Sell Their Land
A former lease clerk canvasses the reservation, urging allotment holders to part with acreage so the government will finish the Wapato irrigation works.
North Yakima — C. E. Roblin, former lease clerk on the Yakima Indian reservation, is canvassing among the tribe on the reservation with the object in view which may result in the government going ahead with the Wapato reclamation project. It will be Mr. Roblin's business to induce the Indians to sell a portion of their lands to help defray the cost of irrigating the remaining portions of their allotments.
As had been supposed, none of the lands affected by the Wapato project are tribal lands. The land in question is all allotted land, and this acreage is estimated to be more than all the acreage in the Yakima Valley which is at present under ditch and being cultivated.
“It will be Mr. Roblin's business to induce the Indians to sell a portion of their lands to help defray the cost of irrigating the remaining portions of their allotments.”
The Wapato Irrigation Project was built, and the Yakama Nation has spent the century since in court and at the negotiating table keeping hold of the water and the land that were meant to be theirs. The logic on offer here — sell some ground to pay for the ditch — is the same arithmetic that turns up whenever a public works project gets balanced on the backs of the people it runs through.
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