Dawes General Allotment Act
- American legislation that distributes Indian reservation land to individual Native Americans in an effort to foster the development of responsible farmers that resemble white people.
- Sen. Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored it for multiple sessions of Congress, and in February 1887 it was ultimately passed into law.
- It stipulated that no grantee might alienate his land for 25 years after the president assessed the recipients’ fitness and awarded the grants, which were typically distributed according to a formula of 160 acres (65 hectares) to each head of household and 80 acres (32 hectares) to each unmarried adult.
- After receiving land in this way, the Native Americans obtained U.S. citizenship and were governed by federal, state, and municipal laws. Native American existence declined under the Dawes Act in a way that its proponents had not foreseen.
- The tribe’s social structure was undermined; many Native Americans who had previously been nomads found it difficult to adapt to an agricultural lifestyle; others had been conned out of their property; and life on the reservation became synonymous with poverty, dirt, illness, and hopelessness.
- In addition, the act stipulated that White people might obtain any “surplus” land. By 1932, White people had obtained two-thirds of the 138,000,000 acres (56,000,000 hectares) that Native Americans had owned in 1887.
The Dawes Act (1887)
The Dawes Act was an important piece of legislation in American history. It was often called the General Allotment Act, which attempted to integrate Native American tribes into the country’s mainstream civilization. With the intention of encouraging private land ownership and agricultural methods, Senator Henry L. Dawes introduced a bill that attempted to divide up tribal property ownership and give individual pieces to Native American households. Its execution, however, was a sad chapter in the history of federal Indian policy and resulted in the eviction of millions of acres of Native American land, as well as long-lasting negative impacts on indigenous populations.
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Table of Content
- The Dawes Act – Overview:
- Dawes General Allotment Act:
- Background to the “Indian problem”:
- Provisions and effects of the Dawes Act:
- Amendments to the Dawes Act:
- Criticism:
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