In the long , disconsolate chronicle of the United States government ’s mistreatment of Native Americans , most multitude are intimate with theTrail of Tears , in which approximately 15,000 aboriginal American men , woman and kid died during forced relocation from their tribal motherland in the American Southeast to Indian Territory in advanced - day Oklahoma .
But the theft of Native American tribal country did n’t stop with the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that authorized the Trail of Tears . Over the next century , Congress passed a serial of laws that systematically strip tribes of their Din Land , selling them to white settler and corporations .
The Dawes Act , while not a menage name , was perhaps the exclusive most devastating politics insurance policy of them all . Also known as the General Allotment Act of 1887 , the Dawes Act resulted in the release of 90 million acres ( 36 million hectares ) of aboriginal lands from 1887 to 1934 — the equivalent oftwo - third gear of all tribal landholdingsat the time .
Solving the ‘Indian Problem’
Nineteenth - century Americans , driven byManifest Destinyand speedy industrialization , were hungry for more and more estate upon which to farm , spread , harvest timber , mine mineral and build railroads . Because of earlier move policies that resettle Native Americans in westerly reservation , many large tracts of attractive Western land were in the hands of Indians by the 1880s .
political leader and businessmen who saw tribal kingdom ownership as an obstacle to American progress were constantly searching for a answer to the so - called " Indian Problem , " and they found it in an unlikely source : progressive social reformer .
Mark Hirsch is a historian at the Smithsonian Institution’sNational Museum of the American Indianin Washington , D.C. He explicate that many well - intentioned Americans were appalled at the heroic condition on Western reservations , where hunting was forbidden and starvation was rearing . indorse by early anthropologists , these societal reformers believed that individual state possession and cultural absorption as farmers and rancher were key to saving the Indians from their own " savage " status .
" These masses really believed that they were doing a good thing for Native Americans , " say Hirsch , " that they were true ' Friend of the Indian . ' "
As a result , two very unlike groups — land - thirsty capitalist and social progressives — throw their backup behind theGeneral Allotment Act of 1887(called the Dawes Act for Sen. Henry Dawes of Massachusetts , the bill ’s lead advocate in Congress ) . This law give the U.S. chairperson unprecedented power to break up up tribal soil into small piece of land or " allotments , " some of which would be extend to Native American family as secret farmland , and the rest sold to clean settlers and line of work interest .
The idea was that the American Indian landowners would emulate the success of their new blank neighbors and get out behind their tribal way to become profitable farmers and ranchers themselves .
" Congress think that the best way of bring around the ' Amerindic problem ' forever would be for Native American hoi polloi to assimilate into white-hot acculturation and gild , " saysStephen Pevar , senior staff advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union Racial Justice Program . " Congress came up with the General Allotment Act as the fomite to accomplish that . "
How the Dawes Act Worked
Before the Dawes Act , Native American land ( including reservations ) was communally owned by the tribe and the fruits of labour were shared jointly by all tribal members . For most nineteenth - hundred Americans , that traditional Native manner of life was antithetical to American ideals of personal responsibility and capitalism .
Teddy Rooseveltfavorably described the Dawes Actas " a mighty pulverizing locomotive to break up the tribal mass , " adding that " the effort should be to steady make the Indian work like any other man on his own dry land . "
Under the Dawes Act , tribal lands would be divide into allotments between40 and 160 acres in size(16 and 65 hectares ) and de jure changed from community attribute to privately have package of land . In some cases , Native American families were gift the option of choosing their allotment , but in most cases it was assigned to them by officers of the U.S. Department of the Interior .
Once all of the Native American families received their small allotments , there was plenty of tribal kingdom left over . This " surplus land"the Dawes Act order , could be sell to non - Native settlers and corporation with the proceeds held in a authorities account to be used alone " for the education and civilization of the Indians . "
That spare country amounted to 60 million acres ( 24 million hectares ) — nearly one-half of all existing tribal territory — that was immediately ceded to the U.S. governance , agree to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation .
In an pernicious twisting , the framers of the Dawes Act added a stipulation that Native Americans were n’t " competent " to own their allotment outright . Instead , the deeds to the land would be concord in a administration trust for 25 years , after which they would be transferred to the Native someone . No such waiting time period existed for white settlers and corporations .
The Devastating Aftermath of the Dawes Act
Hirsch enjoin that U.S. politician for the most part saw the Dawes Act as " a winnings - win billet " in which Native Americans became " civilized landholder " and assimilated into the broader polish and economy with the avail of friendly whitened neighbors .
" Plus , if you had enough white people moving into Indian territory , that area could become an American dominion , " says Hirsch . " If the population kept uprise , you could use for statehood , which is just what happen . "
But while the Dawes Act was a clear " win " for white America , it was absolutely devastating for Native people .
First , says Pevar , " the bulk of Indians did n’t want to become farmer and rancher . Plus , you needed money to buy equipment , Bos taurus and seeds , money that they did n’t have . Here they were with hundreds of acres of state that they could n’t even use . "
In most vitrine , the parcels that were allotted to aboriginal families sit vacant until the 25 - year faith period was over and the farming could be sold . But here again was another obscure stipulation . After the 25 - class confidence time period expired , the land was suddenly dependent to state and local property revenue enhancement , which most Native landowners could n’t pay . So , the land would be seize by the tax court and sold at auction .
" There were whitened people literally waiting in line for the commonwealth to go into forfeiture for loser to pay taxes , " say Pevar . " They would bid on it and buy it . "
Later laws passed by Congress made it even well-fixed to sell off Native American - owned parcelling before the 25 - year wait period . The Burke Act of 1906 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to deem a aboriginal landowner " competent " to obtain the deed to his own land , at which point taxes were due . This often happened without the Native landowner ’s knowledge or consent , and before he knew it his demesne was in forfeiture and betray to the highest bidder .
An additional27 million acresof Native solid ground were lose through these additional legal philosophy and amendment to the Dawes Act , include the so - called " Dead Indian Act " of 1902 that allowed aboriginal heir to sell their family land before the 25 - class trust period was up .
The End of the Dawes Act
So much land was lost that even the Union government was refer . In 1928 , a damning report indite by the Department of the Interior titled " The Problem of Indian Administration " described the United States Department of State of abject poverty and disease in which most Native Americans were live . The source of the reputation criticized the faulty logical system that hand secret land to Native families would mechanically turn them into successful farmers .
" It almost seems as if the government bear that some magic trick in individual ownership of prop would in itself prove an educational civilize factor , " said the story , " but alas this insurance policy has for the most part operated in the opposite centering . “The report notedthat many of the Indians were living on lands that even " a trained and experient ashen man could scarcely wrest a sane living . "
Congress repealed the Dawes Act in 1934 as part of the large Indian Reorganization Act , but the systematic theft of 90 million acres ( 36 million hectares ) of Native lands was already action .
" The Dawes Act is one of the most fundamental and authoritative pieces of legislation that affected Native American people , " says Hirsch . " Tragically , it was fundamental in mostly very negative agency . "
Court pillow slip related to assignation and American Native American land tenureare still going on .
