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The Dawes Act

© Lisa Perkins

In 1887, the American government passed the Dawes Severalty Act. This act, in effect, would solve the "Indian problem" the government was having with the Native Americans by eliminating the different Indian tribes and merging them into white society as "regular citizens." This would effectively eradicate the Indian lifestyle and make the Native American into a "proper citizen." It also effectively dissolved tribes as legal entities and made the individual Indian an official citizen, able to use the federal laws for protection and also responsible for paying taxes.

The Indians, who were considered "savages" by most of white society, would have to completely change their lives with the passage of the Dawes Act. Instead of roaming the land and hunting their food, they would be forced to become farmers and ranchers. Where once the Indian believed that no one owned the land, they would be forced to become landowners to keep the land they were living on. Reservations would be broken up into individual land plots where the head of each Indian family would own their own land instead of the whole tribe owning the entire area. The government, for the 'good' of the Indian, would hold the land of the landowner in trust for twenty-five years. They also sold off the remaining area of the reservations that was not claimed to the highest bidder.

Some of the bills strongest supporters were supposed friends of the Indians. People such as Helen Hunt Jackson lobbied for the Dawes Act, believing the Native American to be inferior to the white people, and expecting the Dawes Act to help the Indians live a "better" life.

In the latter part of the 1880's, the federal government had reduced meat rations and disease killed a lot of the cattle the Native Americans were forced to raise. By the 1890's, most reservations had been destroyed and sold off to the highest bidders. Much of the land allotted to the Native Americans was too dry to farm, and the hunting restrictions placed on them didn't allow supplementing their poor crops. A lot of Indians became dependent on the federal government for support. Demoralization led to alcoholism, which in turn led to violence and even more dependence on the federal government.

The Dawes Act did not work, as history shows. Poor sanitation, poverty and disease made living even more difficult and demoralizing for the Indians. By 1934, Native Americans owned less than sixty-five percent of their original reservations.