How to Query Properties of an Entity in Apache Cassandra
In Cassandra, as far as I know, for SELECT filtered by non-key attributes, you only have three options:

(1) Application side filtering.  That is, if you get your results from a CQL SELECT, use your application to filter the results.  For all but the smallest data sets, this is ill-advised.

(2) Bite the bullet, and create those secondary indices.

(3) Probably the most common option, duplicate your data by having rows composed of keys.  That is, for whatever filter condition you want to apply, create a new entry in your database where you store the keys of all the relevant row entries which match the filter.

Note that while the third option is most common, you will almost eventually develop some data inconsistency due to the inherent de-normalization. Apache Cassandra is not a cure all, it simply handles some applications very well.

Good luck!

P.S.:  Here's a couple decent blog entries which can explain a bit of the theory at the logical data model level.  Part 1 &amp; Part 2