Give Me Liberty The West Analysis

At this same time Native Americans were encountering problems. They were being pushed out of their lands and in 1851 the federal government passed the the Indians Appropriation Act. In the late nineteenth century the federal government passed the Dawes act in 1887. This act allowed for the making of reservations. And a new policy

Steven Adams Dr. Alexander Mendoza United Sates History II Journal Entries 1-10 Entry 1 What was the Dawes Act? It was named for Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, chair of the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee. It divided land into small sections, however this allowed the tribe to retain only a minor portion of land. The remaining land was purchased by whites. Did the Dawes act benefit the Plains Indians?

The Dawes Act of 1887 began the process of allotment. By trying to force Native Americans to become farmers, the federal government cast many groups into poverty. The land which the United States held in trust for Indians was usually not choice farmland. Those trying to make a living off the inhospitable lands of the West found little success. During the interwar period of the early twentieth century, the government made new efforts to alleviate Indians’ position as a marginalized group. Over 10,000 Native Americans volunteered and served with distinction in the armed forces during World War I. In recognition of their efforts, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, making all American Indians United States citizens.

There has been much documentation on the plight of Native Americans throughout the beginnings of this nation. In spite of the attempts by the early government of the United States, the culture of many Native American tribes has survived and even flourished. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 is just one of many examples of how our government attempted to wipe out Native American culture. This paper will discuss the Dawes Act, particularly the time leading up to the act, the act itself, and finally its failure. By understanding the past failures in the treatment of a particular race of people, the government can learn how to protect the rights of all people, especially in a day and age of cultural diversity.

Section two of the Dawes Act states that's the Native American heads of families, which was typically male, can select land allotments for their children who were minors. It also states that an arranged line can run that divides lands between Native American subdivisions

After the Dawes Act was passed, the Government stripped the tribes of their authority and made it very difficult for each of them to maintain their traditional ways of life. The tribes finally decided that they needed some type of authority. This authority came with land ownership and the allotment of land was the closest to land ownership they were going to get. They all agreed to the Dawes Act by 1902 and forfeited their

The encouragement of farming and redistribution of land posed challenges for indigenous people to express their culture. In 1881, Chester A. Arthur said in his message to the Congress that “[m]any of [Native Americans] realize the fact that their hunting days are over” and urged them to “engage at once in agricultural pursuits”. Arthur undermined indigenous culture by discouraging the way Native Americans used land. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 also overlooked indigenous culture by distributing land to individual Native Americans, which contradicted their custom of collective landholding; indigenous people had to begin farming as a result of receiving a third of land they originally had. This neglecting of a fundamental facet of indigenous culture disconnected Native

As Document I shows Native Americans were being cheated out of their land, actually most of their land was being sold. In 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act was passed by congress. The Dawes act divided small plots for each family. But the farmers got their fill as well. On the reservation there were another 90 million acres which were fertile and was often sold to white settlers. As Native American lands went down White settlers land increased. As shown in Document B. Land trades and began to pop up all around the country.

It was wrong for the government to reduce the Indian’s land by 90 million acres. Was it not enough forcing them onto reservations? They were taken from their native lands, placed in reservations, and then had their land reduced. How could this possible be considered okay? In the course book on page 546, it talks about how in order to protect the Indians from land speculators, the government held the allotted land in trust. The Indians could not sell the land for 25 years. I did some research on the Dawes Allotment Act and found an article titled, “Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law”, written by the History.com Staff. In this article, it talks more about the trust the lands were put in. As you can see the American ideals of “freedom”

The Dawes act reflected the interests of the Americans over the interests of the American Indians in a couple ways. The first way is that it sought to push them onto reservations. The American wanted the American Indians land but the American Indians wanted to keep all of it. The other way is that it tried to Americanize the American Indians. The Indians wanted to keep on doing their way of life how they did it hunting, gathering, and owning no personal property. However the Dawes act divided land to each individual and broke apart their traditional ways.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also known as the Wheeler Howard Act or the IRA, had a major impact on the everyday lives of Native American Tribes that were scattered across the United states. The Indian Reorganization Act provided the means and tools for tribes to form their own governments and constitutions. The IRA stopped the general allotment act that was put into effect by the Dawes of 1887. The Indian Reorganization Act granted the Secretary of Interior a tremendous amount of power over Native American affairs ranging from land, livestock, employment, government, etc. According to the reorganization plan, after a tribe or nation voted to accept the IRA, it would draw up a constitution and bylaws, submit it to a referendum,

Five specific groups were especially affected by industrialization: Native Americans, African Americans, children, farmers, and immigrants. Due to federal and state policies, Native Americans were removed from their traditional land into reservations, which were often smaller, more undesirable land. The Dawes Act of 1887, which broke up reservation lands, was ultimately detrimental to Native Americans. Settlers and federal troops pushed the remaining free tribes off their homelands in the Great Plains, and killed most of the buffalo population on which Native Americans relied for survival (The USA online, n.d.).

The history in the 1800s was really rough then now days because they had the Nez Perce war going on and at the same time, we had problems with woman not being able to vote, and the Immigrants were all looking for jobs. As I said earlier about women not being able to vote was a big step back for woman, not so much for men as they didn’t want women to vote. As the author said in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights”(w.i.t.p.n.). Woman were treated imperfect towards men all because they were a different gender, which is unacceptable back in the 1840s and would be now if it happened because we should all be treated the the same and have the same rights. As it says in the text “In order to earn revenue from their land

The west had different meanings for people. For the Native people for example, it meant "Hell, destruction or fullness", while for the Cowboys, miners, Exodusters, it meant "a place of adventure, romance where one could escape from Society and its pressures". These two meaning of the West drove me to talk about what the West meant to Women. Just like any other things, the West not just brought some positive things but it also brought negative ones. When talking about the positive things, we can say the West clearly meant emancipation for women. In fact it was a kind of place where they had freedom and the opportunity of chance to live their lives according to themselves. They were not forced to do anything against their will. For example, they

In the mid to late nineteenth century, America was full of potential. Settlers were cultivating the west, blacks that were once captive were no longer enslaved, and a woman’s role in society was undergoing a transformation. The reality of this all was, blacks were not considered equal status with whites, American Indians were being pushed out west and women were still considered second-class citizens.