Digital Exhibits

Letter from Mayor of Garibaldi opposing in the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde reservation

Letter from Dennis Welch, Mayor of Garibaldi, to Representative Les AuCoin, voicing opposition to the reestablishment of a reservation for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde includes over 30 tribes from Oregon, California, and Washington. In the early 1850s, the United States forced these tribes off their lands, eventually establishing the Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon in 1857. In 1954, Congress passed the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, which ended federal recognition of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Beginning in the 1970s, tribal leaders began working to restore the tribe's federal status, lobbying Congress to first pass the Grand Ronde Restoration Act in 1983, which restored federal recognition, then the Grand Ronde Reservation Act in 1988, which restored a small part of the reservation. On August 10th, 1987, Representative Les AuCoin scheduled a local hearing to discuss the plan to reestablish a reservation. The hearing included a pro-reservation panel of tribal leaders and an anti-reservation panel led by local lumber mills. Representative AuCoin also invited members of several federal agencies, including the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to answer legal questions about the process. This letter from the Mayor of Garibaldi exemplifies local opposition to reestablishing a reservation, arguing without clear evidence that the reservation would grant "a small special interest group" timber, hunting, and fishing rights that would damage the local economy. This document is one of a collection of digitized objects from the Les AuCoin Papers (MS.147) at the Pacific University Archives. Digital objects PUA_MS147_73 through PUA_MS147_77 and PUA_MS147_128 through PUA_MS147_129 represent a selection of opinions offered at the August 10th hearing.

Welch, Dennis

1987

Grand Ronde Indian Reservation (Or.)

Federally recognized Indian tribes

Oregon--Politics and government

Indian termination policy

Lumber trade

Oregon

PUA_MS147_75

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

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