How Did The Dawes Act Affect The Plight Of Native Americans?

Congress passed the Dawes Allotment Act in 1887, its purpose was to teach the Natives the farming methods and the American values of individualism as well as private property rather than collectively owned land in order to assimilate the Natives. This act is seen as the most assimilative and ruined tribal functions culturally and economically with the entire allotment process (O’Brien 77). The act divided reservation lands amongst individual people and families in order for them to farm and raise livestock. Each head of a household would obtain about 160 acres and individuals who were over the age of eighteen would get 80 acres, while all others would receive 40 acres of land, but any surplus land would go to settlers.

For this essay, the question under investigation is: “To what extent did the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 impact Native American Tribes and their culture?” The number of tribes impacted by this act is too vast for us to investigate them all, so the focus of this research question will be on the Five Civilized Tribes to make the subject less broad. Lifestyles of the Native Americans in the Five Civilized Tribes before and after the Dawes Act will be investigated to get a better understanding of the life and cultural changes these people endured. The impacts include the splitting up of land and the redistribution of the land to individual tribe members, and the introduction of "white culture," such as farming, to the Native Americans.

I do think this was their goal, but they lost sight of that and became very selfish with it. Also, the Indians didn't even agree to the act so I feel like the white Americans technically just stole away their land without asking so in turn, it wasn’t a compromise at all. After

The government had the power over reservations of Nations, and could divide them up amongst individual Native Americans. The Dawes Allotment Act, affected Native sovereignty because the Native Government had no say in what their land would be used for. The text stated, "Indian

Another 80 acres would go to each unmarried recipients. It was stipulated that the land could not be alienated for 25 years. Any Indian that received land automatically became citizens of the U.S. They were obligated to state, federal and local laws. All of the supporters of this act

1. How did Dawes Act effected the Native Americans? Dawes Act is the 1887 General Allotment Act. This act was to force the American Indians, who lived in communal way of life, to live Europeans style of individualism. It provided 160 acres of land for each family head and 80 acres to single persons over the age of eighteen (Reyhner and Eder,2006, p.81).

More indians tribes were destroyed during war with the whites, and since the Native Americans did not have as much technology, food, and medicine as the whites, they lost a lot of warriors. Many Native Americans would leave their tribes in search for food only to be confronted and ambushed by white soldiers. Some Native Americans chose to surrender rather than to be moved to a different location. After the Indian and American War, the General Allotment Act was passed, also known as The Dawes Act of 1887. The Dawes Act granted Native Americans land allotments.

Passed in 1887 the Dawes Act, also known as The General Allotment Act, assigned portions of Native American reservations into individual and family hands. Individuals received either 80 or 160 acre plots, and in some instances families received higher acreages. In 1887, over 135 million acres of American soil belonged to Native Americans. In 1934, that number had been reduced to a little over 45 million. The remaining land was sold to settlers, much of it for little or no money.

The Indians did establish schools, develop written language and laws and even became sedentary farmers. Even though they had done all this to become a citizen they were still not recognized. They gave up hunting to adapt the European-American culture. The policy was designed to remove the Native Americans by the American government. The Indian Removal Act was not just created in the 1830’s but was culminated in the nineteenth century.

Specifically, Cleveland argued that the act would give Indians the opportunity to adjust to American culture, by allowing them to begin farming their own land. Furthermore, privatization is a sure way to increase output and quality. We wholeheartedly agreed with Cleveland on this point, and felt that the Dawes Act was a solution to a myriad of problems plaguing the Wild West. Therefore, we voted in favor of Grover Cleveland on the subject of the Dawes Act during the third

Life for the Native Americans was much harder during and after the western expansion. For example, the US took land from the Indians leading the formation of reservations, White men almost hunted the Buffalo , an important food source for the Indians, to extinction, and forced the Indians to get rid of their culture. Because of the western expansion, the area of land the Indians could occupy decreased significantly. The government would make treaties with the Indians allowing them to keep a certain area of land, but this would soon be broken ; When the Pacific Railroad Act was passed it stated that wherever a track was laid the company would own any land 200 ft surrounding the track including Indian land ; the Government would make sure that

Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.

Many tribes had cultural ties to the environment itself. When the Americans established the Indian Removal Act, the Native Americans were forced to leave these cultural grounds. Those who refused to leave their original homeland had to conform to the ways of colonial life instead

First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity.

The Allotment Act The Dawes Act and its supporters sang a very similar tune to southerners who justified slavery as their patriarchal and christian duty. The Dawes Act allowed the President of the United States to survey the reservations Indians lived on and allot its land to heads of households, single persons over eighteen, and to orphans. This meant that the President went into reservations and redistributed the land, upsetting the system Native Americans had previously. Slave owners of the Antebellum South believed that the Black men and women needed to be enslaved, for they could not function without a patriarchal master. Westerners too saw the Native Americans as inferior, and felt that they had to help the tribal people be free of