Pressure to open up seaports and run railroads through Indian lands increased. Non-Indians coveted the Indians fertile river-bottom land and the stands of timber on the hillsides.
In 1887, the U.S. Congress passed the General Allotment Act also known as the Dawes Severalty Act which allotted small parcels of Reservation land to individual families. The real purpose of the Act was to break up Indian land claims, destroy tribal governments and identity, and to open Indian lands to non-Indian ownership and settlement. The Act contributed to widespread land fraud and the Indians began losing their lands.
At Grand Ronde, 33,148 acres were allotted and 26,111 acres were ceded to the Government in 1904. Only 398 Indians remained, down from the original 826. Unallotted land became public domain land and open to non-Indian settlement. All told, nationwide, by 1934, the Dawes Act resulted in the loss by the Indians of 90,000,000 acres.
