Like interlaced fingers, the Inabas and the Yakama Nation have been collaborating to farm for generations. Now, this Japanese-American family, who owned and leased the land for a time, is returning it to the Yakama Nation.
The farm, located southwest of Wapato on the Yakama reservation, is a third-generation family farm operated by siblings Lon, Wayne, Norm, Diane and their mother, Shiz. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation helped Lon’s grandfather begin farming there in the early 1900s, he said, so it’s only fitting that they will continue their association with the operation.