The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

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 event which impacted the ending wars between the United States Army and the Indian nations was the passing of the Dawes Act. One of the top arguments facing the government was the concept that many reformers inferred about the dream of conforming the Indians into a piece of our countries’ white culture. The Dawes Act divided reservations into sections consisting of 160 acres per family to live in; therefore, the remainder of the land would be given to the surrounding white settlements. Although the Dawes Act seemed like a great benefit for the Indians, in many instances this was not true. The Indians’ lives were greatly affected by this act; the natives as the original land owners for generations

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.

Effect of Dawes Act: more opportunities for white plundering of Indian lands, further undermining of traditional Indian cultures

T.S. Eliot once said, “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” This is most certainly true when looking at early Indian history in the United States. In the 1880s, the young government did not know how to deal with the indigenous people who were already living in the land. The US wanted to continue expanding, culturing, and claiming land but land, in the Indian’s perspective, was not something that you could own but a privilege to be shared. Faced with this dilemma, the government passed an act in 1887 known as the Dawes Severalty Act.

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”

In order to understand the Dawes Severalty Act and the effects it had on the Native Americans and the United States, one must acknowledge that there were certain geographical, political, social, and economic circumstances prior to the adoption of the Dawes Act that eventually led Congress to take a stand. In 1887, the US Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act which was intended to help the Indians by protecting their human and property rights. Little did the United States know that the consequences of this Act on the Native Americans were far greater than they planned.

The “Indian Problem” During the 19th century American power and population grew remarkably, land greedy and ambitious the policies towards native tribes were also drastically changing. From the white Americans point of view Native Americans were occupying land that white settlers

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

Section eight of the Dawes Act states that the provisions of the act cannot extend to the territory occupied by the Choctaws, Peorias, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles Chickasaws, Osage, Foxes, Miamies, and Sacs, also known as the “civilized

“There was no way to return the land that had been taken to its rightful owners, and besides, the powerless remnants of once great Indian tribes were lucky to survive from one year to the next”. (VanDevelder 2) When the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide rates struck the reservations. Another reform incident was the effort of civilizing the natives before, from Turner's frontier thesis saw the natives as less intelligible being and reasoned that it was their jobs to educate the Native American children. They were required to attend the

The early 1800’s was a very important time for America. The small country was quickly expanding. With the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, America almost tripled in size by 1853. However, even with the amount of land growing, not everyone was welcomed with open arms. With the expansion of the country, the white Americans decided that they needed the Natives out.

The United States government constructed many federal policies for Native Americans to make American settlers lives better. Federal policies the United States government came up were very inhumane and unfair. A couple of these federal policies are the removal policy, termination policy, and finally the reservation policy. The federal policies deeply affected Native Americans ways of life and their trust in a American settler. These policies could have been modified to make Native Americans better if the United States government and American settlers cared more about the Native Americans well being and beliefs during the 1800’s.

government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming

During the 1800's the Native Americans kept the peace while the Americans were self-serving in their pursuit of land. The Americans believe in the Manifest Destiny. The Native Americans did all that they could to remain in peace with the Americans. The Americans fought persistently with the Native Americans to gain Native American lands. The Americans wanted to move the Native Americans of what they thought was land given to them by God.