The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-03-08
YAKIMA AGENCY, WASH.
FoRT SIMcoE, MARCH 6, 1894.

peareu letter IN the Yakima Republic
OF the 2nd inst, signed by Jay Lynch,
rejecting on my official conduct. The
letter was written for two purposes. First
To deceive the public aud, second, to try
to dssatisfy the Indians with my admin.
istration and to make trouble for me.
shall prove by quotations from letters
written by Jay Lynch to the Indian COM
missioner upon the condition and civiliz-
alton of these Indians that he was either
trying to deceive the commissioner when
he wrote the letters, or he is trying to
decei e the public now 1t is alb
solutely one or the other, for the letters
are directly opposite and cannot be recon-
ciled.
This is not the first ti"e the gentleman
has played the part OF deceiver. He
deceived the commissioner very badly
when he pretended to locate that much
talked-of Wenatshapam fishery, and false
representations and improper location are
in great measure the cause Of the trouble
today. assert and can prove that he
was never on that reservation, nor has he
ever seen Lake Wenatchee, notwithstand-
ing he says in an official letter to the
commissioner, dated October "a, 1893
81 travelled up Wenatchee river 80 miles
to Lake Wenatchee." He further says ::
There being no mounds, ridges or other
natural objects, 1 have found it quite
difficult to describe the boundary l desire
to recommend"
This assertion is not true, for il abounds
in ridges, rolling hills and mountains !;
and what more natural objects do you
want? / imagine it would be quite diff
ficult to describe a boundary line that
a man had never seen.
II you think Mr.. Lynch ever saw the
fishery, listen to this. l quote from the
record of acting secretary of the interior,
81 ,fS7 1888; comment from Jas. III.
Chase: ''In his visit Agent Lynch went
within five miles OF the lake, knew nothing
of the character OF the land, nor what
settlement had been made in that locality,
but derived his information from other
sources"
quote again from acting secretary OF
the interior, IL, 507-1S93; comment on
letter OF J. j. Matthews: Last Septem-
Der Agent Lynch came in to locate the
Wenatchee reserve. lie went within five
miles OF Wenatchee lake to Chewa, a
stream of some size; was afraid to cross
it; turned around, asked few questions
about the country, went home and located
the reserve from the best maps he could
find, which seems to have been very
defective"
II any one should doubt the statements
that l have just written, refer you to
Herbert Williams, who was engineer at
the Fort when took charge. This gen.
tleman accompanied Mr.. Lynch on that
trip and states that they only went to
Chewa river, found it up, turned around
there and returned to the Fort. You
will readily see from this that the gentle
man never set foot on the Fishery reserve.
This letter in the Republic says: 81
enclose a map showing the survey as
made by Agent Erwin, which leaves the
site OF the old fishery ontside of the sur
Wy and only takes in four miles OF the
river, instead of ten. Why the bound
airy was changed contrary to the wishes
of the Indians and executive order does
not appear" had several most excel
lent reasons for the change. Mr.. Lynch
had mapped out piece of land he had
never seen. The result was he made so
many foolish blnnders that his map was
pronounced impracticable by o. B. liver
son, who made the survey. He so report
ed to the surveyor general on August 8,
1893. In this letter Mr.. Ieerson says !:
From my instructions, it appears that
Mr.. Lynch had made sort of prelimin-
airy survey of this fishery reserve and the
order to survey was based on Mr.. Lynch's
report. l find that it would be impos 81
bic to follow the instructions.
You will see from the above that he had
led the department TO believe he had
made preliminary survey when, as a
matter of fact, he had never seen the
property. He also led me to believe the
same thing and when Mr.. Iverson wrote
and asked that should CO ne and super
intend the survey wrote him, on July
81, instructing him 10 follow the map az
laid out by Mr.. Lynch; that could be Of
no assistance and declined to go. When
the surveyor general received the letter
of Mr.. Iyerson, stating that the map was
impracticable, he had the Indian COM
missioner wire me to 20 to Wenatchee
and look. after the survey. had no in
,structions to change the location. but
only to superintend the survey where
Mr.. Lynch had made the selection. Had
Ihad the power, would have changed
the location entirely, for l am convinced
that the fishery mentioned in the treaty
is at least % miles from the present loca-
ton.
The gentleman leaves the fishing ques-
ton and pictures most exeellently the
moral, financial and civilized condition of
the Indians. He says: "SimpIy because
the Indians objected to accept the price
offered for the land, as surveyed, as fair
price for the fine valley (Which is their
right, they are held up to the public as
Savage looking aboriginees, most
fiendish looking red men, etc, when it
is well known they are well advanced in
civilization. These Indians are to be seen
nearly every day with teams, loads of hay
and other produce, raised on their farms,
and merchants are anxious to get their