Imagine someone being told that they could not live on the land that they have lived on all their life anymore. This native land was where that person’s family had been for generations. This was where that person’s culture and life was made. Taking this land is like ripping the home away from a human being. That was exactly what the Dawes Act did. The Dawes Act broke up Native American reservations and gave out insufficient portions of land to the Indians to on. Because of this I do not believe that the United States government had a good reason for breaking up the reservations in its attempt to assimilate the Native American population. Not only was the land that the Native Americans obtained insufficient, but also the Dawes Act caused …show more content…
However, like many plans there were drawbacks included. The land that was given to the Native Americans was often inadequate; this made farming for the Indians almost, if not impossible. The whites did not consider that farming would be a struggle for the Indians either. Critics argued, that the Act would also fail because the Indians were not ideal farmers, they said; for centuries the Indians had been nomadic hunters, not farmers tied to the land” (Kauffman). The whites could have given all the land they wanted to the Indians; however, if they did not know how to farm the land was not beneficial for the Indians. All Indians knew was how to hunt animals, they had not needed to learn how to farm for …show more content…
However, this ban did not prevent the whites from trying to obtain the portions of land that the Indians owned. The Dawes Act was “a land grab that forced the Indians to sell large portions of their land to the government for white settlement” (Kauffman). This Dawes Act also had the potential to deprive the Indians of their lands. The rule was, “if the Indians did not select their land within four years, then government agents would select it for them” (Kauffman). The government had agents sent out to select the land for the Indians. The agents gave the poor and infertile lands to the Indians while making sure that the finest lands were sold to the whites and railroad investors. These agents were who conned the Indians into giving up their lands before they fully owned them. By giving the Indians infertile land, it made farming very difficult. This caused the Indians to sell or even give the land to the whites. These agents also contributed to the idea that critics had about the Dawes Act being just another attempt by the whites to take the Indians
The two main actions that the United States government issued towards the Plains Indians were the Homestead Act and the Dawes Act. The Homestead Act correlated with the trend of Manifest Destiny and encouraged settlers to migrate west. The Homestead Act encouraged western migration by providing 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. After six months of residency, homesteaders also had the option of purchasing the land from the government for roughly $1.25 per acre. (Primary Documents in American History) The land that the government was distributing belonged to various tribes of the Plains Indians. By having the Homestead Act in effect and encouraging settlers to migrate west, Plains Indians were forced into reservations. The real impact of Manifest Destiny was that it sent many settlers west, without realizing that the settlers were taking land from the Indians. The Indians that lived in the reservations had just enough food to keep their population alive, as well as living in unsanitary conditions with bacteria and diseases everywhere. The two options that the Indians had was to either live in the reservations with little to no food or to face genocide. Some Indian tribes tried to make amends with American troops who ushered the natives to reservations, but some American troops turned on the Indians. One incident of the American troops killing Indians was the Nez Perce war. This war was over a conflict of land and how some US troops did not agree on the settlement of the land. The war resulted in over 100 casualties towards the Indians and was stated as a genocide of and Indian tribe. The second act that was passed by the United States government was the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act authorized the President to survey American
Despite that, the United States government told the Indians that they would not invade their lands. They soon heard that the Indians had fertile land and decided to allow settlers to move west. “After hearing tales of fertile land and a great mineral wealth in the West, the government soon broke their promises established in the Treaty of Fort Laramie by allowing thousands of non-Indians to flood into the area.”. (Victoriana) To make more land available to the settlers the government had to make reservations that would separate the Indians from the whites. In exchange for the Indians moving to
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 General Allotment Act was made to create the great symbol of the United States just hours after the Declaration of Independence was written. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began preparing to a one of a kind, national seal. The seal went through three stages of designs in early 1782 before the fourth was chosen in 1782. A second and third committee made designs for the seal along with Charles Thompson. The first three designs played a part in the fourth design that combined the three. Charles Thompson created the fourth design and it was approved by congress on June 20, 1782. The Seal represents sovereignty for America. The seal’s design is used as our national coats of arms and is used to decorate on our military uniforms. I believe that the United States won, even though this wasn’t a battle. In the end the United States gained a symbol of the country’s sovereignty.
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
Throughout the years, following the civil war (1860’s-1900’s), the United States was guilty of genocide on the behalf of the Native Americans. The Natives were discriminated against and were pressured into abandoning the Midwest and the Great Plains due to excruciating circumstances. The Homestead and Pacific Railroad Acts pushed the Native Americans to the brink of existence. The policies within the acts targeted these tribes in order to pursue the goals of the government. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed the selling of hundreds of acres of land to families, therefore tripling the amount of farms from two million to six million in a matter of decades. This led to over 500,000 natives migrating westward, while families inhabiting the former
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
Passed in 1887, the General Allotment Act, or the Dawes Act, allotted, or parceled, portions of Native American reservations into individual and family hands. The authority of allotment was granted to the President of the United States.
The U.S became a colonial power. This negatively affected the native tribes, such as the Sioux when the Dawes Act was passed in 1887, making it legal for the government to buy any land they pleased. In this instance, the growth of government proved to be a poison to the natives who were forced to give up their land and way of life. The expansion of government not only targeted native tribes, but also singled out races of immigrants, such as the Chinese. In 1882, the government approved and passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stated that Chinese immigrants could only exist in China Towns, which were established for second class citizenships. (Pettengill, 1/31/18). This display of segregation demonstrated how the government had the power to divide the nation into sectors that could be regulated much easier. In doing so, the government was striping America’s offer of freedom to the immigrants that sought a better life in the new
Not knowing how to cultivate the land or domesticate animals, the Cherokee at a standstill. The Whites, who knew how to cultivate the land and domesticate animals, would have been able to utilize the land to its fullest potential instead of withering away precious resources. The Whites tried various methods to persuade the Cherokee to part with their land, but they refused and were frequently abused. “… we have come to the conclusion that this nation cannot be reinstated in its present location, and that the question left to us and to every Cherokee, is, whether it is more desirable to remain here, with all the embarrassments with which we must be surrounded, or to seek a country where we may enjoy our own laws, and live under our own vine and fig-tree.” If the Cherokee had agreed to relocate further west, they would not have had to go through adversity. The Whites would have left them alone, free to create their own laws and free to do what they wanted. The Cherokee pushed their source of food westward leaving a shortage of deer and buffalo and they did not have the knowledge or resources to cultivate the land. Due to these facts, they were not self-sufficient and would not have been able to survive using their outdated methods of living. Compared to the Whites, the Cherokee population was miniscule, spread across a vast amount of land. “The
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
The Native Americans were far worse off under the reservation system. The small amount of benefits from the reservation system was mostly for the Americans, who now were able to freely take the lands that the Native Americans inhabited. Many problems resulted from the reservation system, one being that the Native Americans were forced to rely on agriculture instead of living nomadic lives. This is only one problem of the many that arose from the reservation system. In addition, the government chose to further complicate things for Native Americans by enforcing the Dawes Act, making the tribe-owned land become private instead of
People being forced off their land for gold and riches was very cruel and was the basis for the creation of the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act was created on May 28, 1830, by president Jackson. It stated that all southern Indian tribes were to be moved to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. Even though some Indians left peacefully some tribes had to leave with force. The Act of 1830 had a huge impact on all Indians. The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South in order to gain access to lands inhabited by the five Indian tribes. On the other hand, the Indians weren’t very fond of this act and started to not like the Americans. The U.S government thought that the movement
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.
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.).