The Discards

An explanation is the only excuse for this little publication. The Discards were primarily to appear in the Second or Summer Season Number of The American Indian Tepee, a quarterly launched for the avowed purpose of combating the manifest evils of the Indian Bureau; the fraud and graft imposed with impunity on the child-minded tribesmen by the robber speculator, land thief and all round crooks who swarm the reservations; as well as creating a deeper sentiment of respect for the Red race by giving first hand the Indian side of life; his poetry, music, philosophy and tribal history. As an adopted Yakima, the chief editorship was tendered me and was accepted with no thought of compensation other than the satisfaction of attempting to do something for a greatly maligned and hampered people. The first editorial in the initiative number of the Tepee, reveals the faith that was placed in the declared purpose of the management, which would now appear as mere ostentation. This became more apparent as work on the second number progressed. Reproductions foreign to the vital Indian cause were given precedence over "fighting" originality; and when the Wolf howled, he was summarily bounced by the Fox, who then assumed full control as both manager and editor.