In 1970, the U.S. federal government was in the process of reviewing military needs and planned to declare as surplus much of the grounds of Fort Lawton, located on Puget Sound in the northwestern section of the Magnolia neighborhood. The state's two U.S. Senators, Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson amended the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Act of 1965, reducing the previous 50-100 percent cost of acquiring surplus federal government property to 0-50 percent, so that such property might be acquired by bodies other than real estate developers. The property would initially be transferred to the city but was not constrained in use. In that period of Indian activism, many of Seattle's urban Indians were concerned to gain a land base within the city. (As of the early 21st century, about 25,000 Indians from a variety of tribes live in the Seattle area.)