Reservation Plan (continued)
pass. This I have attempted putting Into operation and have good reason
to believe will be sucessful. It will require a force of about sixty en,
and to remain until relieved by the promised Company of United States
Troops.
The donation land claims and the presence of the military at Fort Yamhill
within the boundaries of the Reservation created land and Jurisdictional
disputes from the outset. While some of the settlers were willing to sell
their farms within the boundaries of the Reservation, others were not.
The existence of these claims has confused the record relating to the
acreage contained within the reservation.
The accompanying tracing of a map in 1858 shows the location of the
Kuykendall and Babcock land claims in sections 7 and 8 as well as the
location of the Shasta, Santiam, and Cow Creek Indian villages. The
location of Fort Yamhill is also shown. There was constant confusion and
conflict because of the overlapping claims of the Indian Department, the
military and the several settlers who refused to sell their lands.
Conflicts over the unpurchased claims continued for many years.
Initially the Indian bands settled in separate villages located Jn
different parts of the Reservation. The different Indian groups
maintained their separate identities, elected their respective
representatives to the general Legislative Council of the Reservation, and
the members of each village farmed land in common. In 1872, in
anticipation of authorizing legislation, Individual Indian families were
allotted farms at Grand Ronde. The Indians immediately began fencing and
clearing their individual holdings and building homes.
The General Allottment Act, also known as the Dawes Act, became law on
February 8, 1887. Under authority of this law, 270 allotments were made
to Indians at Grand Ronde. The certified schedule was submitted to the
Secretary of the Interior on January 25, 1891 and the allotments were
approved on April 29, 1891. In July 1892, 265 patents were transmitted to
the Agent at Grand Ronde Agency. Several of the allotments had
inadvertently been made on land within an unpurchased donation land claim
and one person eligible to be allotted had been overlooked. The remaining
patents were issued a few years later after the land assignments had been
readjusted.
The patents issued under authority of the Dawes Act contained a provision
that after twenty-five years, the lands would go out of trust and into fee
status. During the first twenty-five years the lands were held in trust
for the Indian patentee by the United States and the lands were not
subject to tax. At the close of the trust period, a fee patent would
issue and the lands became taxable. Most of the allotments were fee
patented and went
Allotment