While managing reservation timberland on a sustained-yield basis, Tribal leaders were able to start using timber revenue to address the pressing needs of Tribal members. Tribal leaders committed themselves to turning things around for Tribal members so they could become self-sufficient and no longer depend on government assistance.

In 1988, Congress re-established a 9,811-acre reservation in the mountains north of Grand Ronde.Īt the time of Restoration, Tribal members faced severe social and economic needs resulting from generations of hardship, poverty and discrimination. Through the hard work and sacrifices of Tribal members, recognition was restored in 1983. All that was left was 7.5 acres of land - a cemetery and maintenance shed. The original 60,000-acre reservation was reduced incrementally over the years until the government terminated the Tribe in 1954. The journey took 33 days, and many died along the way. They were joined by members of other tribes and bands as they marched past other tribal homelands. Thus began Oregon’s “Trail of Tears.” The Rogue River and Chasta tribes were the first to be removed from their aboriginal lands. Beginning in February 1857, federal troops forced the native people to march from a temporary reservation at Table Rock in Southern Oregon 263 miles north across rough terrain to the newly created Grand Ronde Reservation. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde were formed when the government forced member tribes to cede their ancestral lands and created the 60,000-acre Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon’s Coast Range. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon are the proud peoples of the Umpqua, the Rogue River, the Molalla, the Kalapuya, the Chasta and many other tribes whose roots go back thousands of years and whose ancestors represent the blending of many different cultures.

Native peoples inhabited Oregon’s inland valleys for thousands of years before white settlers arrived.

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