Smoke signals., May 01, 1986, Image 7

Reservation Plan (continued)
out of Indian control with alarming rapidity. This was true, not only at
Grand Ronde, but across the natloji wherever allotments had been made under
the General Allotment Act.
In a belated effort to preserve Indian ownership of reservation lands, a
series of executive orders were issued extending the trust period on some
of these allotments. As a result, a small number of the original
allotments at Grand Ronde remained as trust lands until the Federal-Grand
Ronde relationship was terminated In 1954-56. At Grand Ronde, as
elsewhere, the alienation of land from Indian ownership and control as due
to a series of disastrous policy decisions and legal enactments, rather
than any desire on the part of the Indians to divest themselves of their
lands.
Much of the land at Grand Ronde wa9 unsuitable for farming. In an effort
to provide some farm land to each allottee, the allotments were provided
in several parcels some of which might be widely separated. The plan
which was put Into effect was described in an 1889 report of Inspector
T.D. Marcum.
This reservation contains 61,440 acres, but not to exceed one-sixth of
the reserve is suitable for profitable cultivation. A small portion is
very good grazing land, while the remainder is broken but very well
timbered with pine and fir trees.
Land In severalty is being allotted to these Indians, and the plan pursued
by Col. Collins, the allotting: Agent, giving each Indian a portion of the
farming land, and the balance in grazing or timbered land, is the only
equitable method that could have been devised.
This effort left some allottees with widely separated holdings and still
others with only timbered land, as there was not sufficient land suitable
for cultivation. Government policy at $he turn of the century prohibited
Indians from cutting timber from, their lands for sale. They were only
allowed to remove dead and down timber or to clear for farming purposes.
Allottees with timbered lands were unable to derive a living from their
lands. y . -r .'-V- '.
There was, at the same time, pressure from non-Indians to get possession
of unallotted Grand Ronde lands. Much of the land which remained as
tribal, unallotted land as timber land and land suitable only for grazing
stock. In 1900 an attempt to Insert a provision in the appropriations
bill to authorize negotlatons with the Indians for the sale of "surplus"
lands failed. However, by the following year U.S. Inspector James
McLaughlin had been detailed to secure an agreement for a cession of the
unallotted lands at Grand Ronde.