Representative Salinas Visits Grand Ronde to Celebrate New Law

Salem, OR – On Tuesday, January 23, U.S. Representative Andrea Salinas (OR-06) visited the Grand Ronde Community to meet with members of the Tribe and celebrate the passage of her bill, the Grand Ronde Reservation Act Amendment, which was signed into law by the President on December 26, 2023. During her visit, Rep. Salinas also toured a new facility that will house the Tribe’s language immersion programs.
                                                                                                       

Click here for usable photos from the event
 

“It was great meeting with members of the Grand Ronde Community last week to celebrate the Grand Ronde Reservation Act Amendment becoming law,” said Rep. Salinas. “After decades of injustice, the Grand Ronde Tribe finally has the right to pursue land claims and compensation once again. I am so honored to have championed this important legislation along with Senator Jeff Merkley and the entire Oregon delegation.”

“We cannot express what this amendment to the Grand Ronde Reservation Act means to us as a Tribe and a people,” said Grand Ronde Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy. “This amendment is about restoring equity to the Tribe while correcting a wrong and we are forever grateful to those that worked to make this legislation law.”

Introduced by Rep. Salinas and U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the Grand Ronde Reservation Act Amendment corrects a drafting error in a 1994 legislative amendment to the Grand Ronde Reservation Act, which authorized a land exchange requiring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to compensate the Grand Ronde Tribe for an 84-acre survey error by the federal government. The survey error occurred around 1871 and was not discovered by the Bureau of Land Management until 1988. In 1994, in pursuing federal legislation to rectify the error, an amendment was made to the bill at the time that further prohibited the Tribe from making any additional land claims if new errors were ever discovered. 

Rep. Salinas and Sen. Merkley’s legislation puts an end to this inequitable restriction on the Tribe so that they may pursue recourse if additional survey errors are found. In case additional survey errors are discovered, this legislation to amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act replaces the phrase “lands within the State of Oregon” with the phrase “the 84 acres known as the Thompson Strip,” clarifying that they are only prohibited from making additional land claims to the area known as the Thompson Strip.