A 1988 photograph of Congressman Les AuCoin presenting Kathryn Harrison and Mark Mercier, tribal leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, with a copy of the Grand Ronde Reservation Act, as featured in the Nov. 13, 2008 edition of Smoke Signals magazine. Smoke Signals was a newsletter published by the tribe. The Act re-established reservation lands for Grand Ronde, several years after the restoration of their status as a federally recognized tribe.
A video featuring a KATU 2 news story recapping the history of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde's Restoration as a federally recognized tribe in 1983, followed by developments through 1987 as the tribe was working to regain previously held reservation lands. The news story points out how US Congressman Les AuCoin had helped to organize a local hearing at Grand Ronde elementary school for both tribal leaders to address their hopes for a reservation and for anti-reservation lumber mill leaders to express their concerns. An advocate for the tribe, Congressman AuCoin had sponsored H.R.3885, the Grand Ronde Restoration Act of 1983, and H.R.4143, the Grand Ronde Reservation Act of 1988, which restored a small portion of the reservation lands that the news story in the video was referring to.
