Standing in the Gap for Oregon

Polk County, Oregon Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6 When we wrote about Polk County in an earlier post, we mentioned The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, the reservation with headquarters in Polk County, and lands mainly in Yamhill. The tribe has been expanding their lands whenever possible. The Willamette Falls site has been an important location to the various tribes of the Pacific Northwest, and in 2019 the Grand Ronde tribes purchased the 23 acres where the former Blue Heron paper mill operated, on the edge of the Willamette Falls. Work continues for that site. The original reservation of over 60,000 acres was established in 1858. In the 1950’s the federal government terminated many tribes and reservations, under the misguided belief that the Native Americans would benefit by assimilation into American culture. However, that was not the case, and this...