Near White Swan, nine Indian eighty acre allotments were receiving water from a ditch of their own construction, tapping Medicine Valley. Indian homes were established on all these tracts, each irrigating from ten to sixty acres. Some had planted small orchards, others were gardening and raising grain. About eleven years ago, one Reece B. Brown bought at a low figure the Umtouch allotment on the west, the first receiving water from the ditch. Mr. Brown, who has been connected with divers litigations connected with Reservation deals, boldly appropriated (?) all the water from the lower eight allotments, diverting it to his own land which was planted to orchard. The Agent knew of the "appropriation." He did nothing--for the Indians. I personally called the attention of the Acting Engineer of the Indian Reclamation Service to the robbery. An "investigator" looked the situation over. Looked, and nothing more. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs was appealed to. An investigation and promises--nothing more. The aid of the Secretary of the Interior was invoked. An "investigation" and more promises--nothing more. In 1913 I was told by Superintendent Carr that suit had been instituted in the Federal Court for the recovery of this water, and a subsequent letter from the Assistant Indian Commissioner in reply to an inquiry, stated that such suit was "pending." The case has never progressed beyond this "pending" stage. Evidently the "pending" cord was most carefully selected for its stretching and wearing qualities. Is the Indian Bureau a party to the crime? Or is it only afraid of the reputed millionaire water "appropriator"? So far the "investigations" have all been conducted by the Indian Bureau officials only. Will a higher tribunal be invoked before another Planting Moon shall have arrived? In 1916 a very full account of this most disgusting affair was given by me in an eastern journal of 30,000 copies, under the caption: =The Continued Crime Against The Yakimas=. This brought out a feeble renewal of never-to-be-kept-promises from the Department. Water by the Wapato Canal would cover these lands "next year" in any event. Several "next years" have passed and these lands are still powder-dry, while the orchards planted on the Umtouch allotment have flourished and brought returns, nourished by stolen water. The other eight allotments are also producing--fine second growth desert sage. The houses are tumbling to decay, the fencing in some instances disappearing beneath the drifting sand dunes--fitting monument to the cowardly, vacillating policy of an obsolete Bureau.