The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
includes over 20 Tribes and bands from western Oregon and northern California
that were relocated to the Grand Ronde reservations in the 1850's. These
included the Rogue River, Umpqua, Chasta, Kalapuya, Molalla, Salmon River,
Tillamook, and Nestucca Indians who had lived in their traditional homelands
for over 8,000 years before the arrival of the first white visitors. They
lived off the land -- fish and game were plentiful, and what they couldn't
catch in the rivers or hunt in the forests, they acquired by trade with other
Tribes, and later, with the non-Indians.
The Grand
Ronde reservation was established by treaty arrangements in 1854 and 1855 and
an Executive Order of June 30, 1857. The Reservation contained over 60,000
acres and was located on the eastern side of the coastal range on the
head-waters of the South Yamhill river, about 60 miles southwest of Portland
and about 25 miles from the ocean.
In 1887,
the General Allotment Act became law. Under the law, 270 allotments totaling
slightly over 33,000 acres of the Grand Ronde Reservation were made to
individual Indians. With these allotments came a provision which allowed the
Indian lands to go from federal trust status to private ownership after 25
years. The purpose of the Act was to make farmers of the Indians. However, the
result of this action was the loss of major portions of the reservation to
non-Indian ownership. Then, in 1901, U.S. Inspector James McLaughlin declared
a 25,791 tract of the reservation "surplus" and the U.S. sold it for $1.16 per
acre.
In 1936,
under the Indian Reorganization Act, the Tribe was able to purchase some lands
to provide homes for residents of the reservation. However, the Tribe's
attempt at recovery was brought to an abrupt end in 1954 when Congress passed
the Termination Act which severed the trust relationship between the federal
government and the Tribe. For nearly thirty years, between 1954 and 1983, the
members were landless people in their own land. The termination policy robbed
the Tribe of its social, economic, and political fabric, leaving a scattered
population and poverty which led to a wide range of health, education, and
social problems.
In the
early 1970's, efforts began to reverse the tide of termination. From the state
of social, economic, and political disarray, tribal leaders began the arduous
task of re-establishing the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community
of Oregon. On November 22, 1983, with the signing of Public Law 98-165, the
Grand Ronde Restoration Act, the task was accomplished. In addition, on
September 9, 1988, the Tribe regained 9,811 acres of the original reservation
when President Ronald Reagan signed the Grand Ronde Reservation Act into law.
The reservation lies just north of the community of Grand Ronde.
With
restoration and the re-establishment of the reservation, tribal efforts have
focused on rebuilding the tribal institutions and developing tribal service
programs to meet the needs of the tribal members. They have provided the Tribe
an opportunity to create a viable community, contribute to the local economy,
and provide for the eventual achievement of tribal self-sufficiency.
|