Tag: sinnott

General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Native Issues, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Siletz ReservationLeave a comment

Joel Palmer’s Defiant Cattle Drive Through Grand Ronde, 1874

David G. Lewis, PhD

In 1874, Joel Palmer was again an independent contractor for the Indian service, after having completed a two-year stint as the Indian Agent for the Siletz Agency. Palmer was constantly working on business deals, and one which he hatched was a plan to raise cattle on the Coast, where they would be in readily available to be sold to the Siletz Reservation. In this period Siletz was very remote and in the winter months, it was exceedingly difficult to get supplies or food into the reservation, as the trails were muddy and the rivers fast and treacherous. Palmer’s plan was … Continue reading Joel Palmer’s Defiant Cattle Drive Through Grand Ronde, 1874

Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon indians, treatiesLeave a comment

When Annuities Ended on the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation

David G. Lewis, PhD

The closure of the 1853-1855 treaty annuities in 1875 was a time of hardship for some Oregon reservations. For 20 years the reservations of Oregon were fully or partially supported by annual payments based on the annuities of these treaties. But when the annuities ended, the federal government had made no plans for support of the reservations, and this left some 3,000 Indians without their annual funding. Self-determination and self-sufficiency were not yet thought of as a part of National Indian policies. The federal Indian policy in 1875 was much the same as in 1855, to assimilate the Indians into … Continue reading When Annuities Ended on the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation