Indian Allotment Research Paper

Thesis: The Indian Act effectively required Aboriginals to give up large amounts of land and rights followed by moving onto reserves. It negatively changed the lives of many Indian men and women who married non-status Aboriginals and harshly withdrew Aboriginal children from their families and put them into residential schools for the purposes assimilation. The Indian Act was known for creating an atrocious life for Indians.

The purpose of the Indian Act was to encourage assimilation. This was achieved by suppressing traditional ceremonies, defining who was "Indian" and who wasn 't, and moving First Nations to reserves in hopes of disconnecting First Nations ' ties with the land. The term status Indian was used to define someone who is registered according to the provisions of the act and is therefore eligible to receive specific benefits.

This act required for the Indians to be removed in a peaceful, and voluntary manner but this was ignored by Jackson’s government and many were forced to walk long distances without water, food, or basic resources and left lands they had lived on for generations behind. The Cherokees took their case to the Supreme Court to fight their relocation, but despite their best efforts, they were forced to leave and engage in a torturing, and deadly, 1,200 mile trail to Indian territory. The Cherokees lost 5,000 people on their long cruel and inhumane journey which is why it is called. “ The Trail Of Tears”. All of this brutality towards the Natives was caused by a man, Andrew Jackson, who will go down in history as a President who led America down a dark murderous

The Indian Removal Act was established to move Native Americans off of American territory who were interfering with US expansion. However because of this act, both the states and the Indians were able to benefit, which is explained throughout document 6. The US was gained more peace within the state and national government, there were less problems that arose. Money on the western frontier was strengthened and grew. States were able to grow and prosper. Additionally, the Indians were now free of further conflict with Americans. If they agreed to move west they would become separate from the United States. They would be able to live on their own, without interference from the United

The United States government also wanted to gain control of the Indian Tribes territories for its own reason. They government believed the land could help boost the economy of the United States. The federal government also wanted to have control of the Indians land so that they could sell it to land speculators and settlers who would move on to the land

The goal of the Act was to make independent farmers out of the Indians by giving them land and the means for citizenship. The intention was to free them from the reservations and make them civilized American people. The Native American people had no input in this decision, and they were not even consulted. The Dawes Act declared that each head of an Indian family be allotted 160 acres of farmland and 80 acres to every unmarried adult. Rest of the the tribal land was considered surplus so the government could sell it to the settlers.

How the Indian Removal act of 1830 impacted the Native American community is by the false promise of new lands from relocation. In Document 1 by Andrew Jackson states “attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people.”Both of these document show how even though they were forced out of their homes they were sent to “live & prosper” but actually kwer sent to live as savages.

When the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) became enacted, it granted the Native American people many rights to themselves as well as their land. They were pretty much granted custody of their land (Imagine a custody battle over a child in which the land is the child and the Native peoples were the mother. The mother finally won.). Upon replacing the Dawes Act, the IRA authorizes for the Native Reservation to be given rightful

Approved by the US Congress and President Grover Cleveland on February 8, 1887, the Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act, emphasized severalty, the treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than as members of tribes. The opening lines of the document deem the Dawes Act, “an act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the territories over the Indians, and other purposes” (Dawes Act). The Dawes Act, sponsored by Massachusetts Senator, Henry L. Dawes specifically agreed to provide: each Indian family head a 160 acre farm out of reservation lands, each new land owner who abandoned cultural practices and adopted “habits of civilized life” (the white settler’s ways) would be granted American citizenship, and finally “surplus” reservation lands would be made available to sell to the white settlers. Surprisingly, the US Congress did allow the Five Civilized Tribes to be exempt from the law due to a treaty signed in 1830. Section 8 stated that, "The provisions of this act shall not extend to the territory occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Osage, Miamies and Peorias, and Sacs and Foxes, in the Indian

One benefit of the act to the Indians is that they could have protection, for instance, Jackson "...warned Indians that the federal government could not protect them if they chose not to emigrate" (Cave, 1339). Therefore, if the Indians accepted the act, they would be granted protection from harm and everything else. However, if they refused, the Indians will have to survive on their own, which means that anyone can cause harm to them and it would not be counted as a crime committed or harassment. The Indians during this time were also protesting for the government to protect them such as their rights. In the end, the Indians would get what they have been fighting for, but with a

The Dawes Act of 1887 was an act that attempted to allot the land of the Native Americans. It tried to fall apart the Indian reservations by allotting land to Individual Indians. The purpose of this act was to improve the life of the Indians and assimilate them into the American society. Through the Johnson-O'Malley Act, the United Stated decided to provide subsidization on education, medicine and social welfare for the Native Americans who lived within the borders. It reduced the federal government’s strict regulation towards every aspect of the Indian life. This act allowed the Secretary of the Interior to deal with contracts between the States and the federal government for the education, welfare and medicine of Indians.

This act served to encourage the citizens of the United States to pursue the course of westward expansion and permanently settle the land on the other side of the Mississippi River basin, the land that was “acquired” by the government from the Native Americans. In accepting the government's offer to make way into the western frontier, each man would receive 160 acres of “public land” to farm and eventually make profitable in the long run. This newly accessible “public land” was the result of the Indian Removal Act and caused the development of new problem for the United States government. After eradicating the Natives,the government came to the realization that their success was limited due to the mass population of Indians that were now without some sort of residence and facing certain starvation from the lack of buffalo. In order to “keep the promises” that were made to the Natives, the government devised the Reservation System which would allow them to facilitate the needs of the Indians without posing a threat to any of the settlers. These reservations are still in use today, although they do not serve the same purpose as they once did and are now scared places that many house the remaining culture and traditions of several

The Twenty-First Congress agreed with president Andrew Jackson that the tribes had to be separated into other territory. Congress stated that the territory that Indians had was part of the United States. They also mention that they will have to exchange the land, or they would be forcing them out and reverting their land to the United States. Land that was taken away from these tribes had to be improved such as adding value to the land and then paying it off for the improvements that had been made. After removing the Indians congress claimed that it was the right of the president to help them with any assistance after being removed from their previous homes.

You made a good post. I agree with you that the House concurrent resolution 108 was the efforts of assimilation and laid the foundation for the termination. I think the losses of the Indians from this act were more than the gains. Many of their tribal rights were removed and their former land was not controlled by themselves. Under the Public Law in 1953, the federal government could lend the hand of the Indians to control over these tribes, which reduced their energy spending on the tribal issues. It was negative for the Indians because the federal government still tried to assimilate the Indians and force them to change their lifestyles.

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,