Dawes Act enacted

Background. During the early 1800s, numerous European immigrants settled on the eastern border of the Indian territories, where most Native American tribes had been relocated. In the later nineteenth century, tribes resisted the imposition of the reservation system and fought the United States Army in the Indian Wars for decades. Reformers believed Native Americans needed to leave behind tribal landholding, reservations, traditions, and ultimately their Indian identities. Senator Henry Dawes campaigned to rid the nation of tribalism through the virtues of private property, allotting land parcels to Indian heads of family.

Legislative Provisions. The act authorized the President to subdivide tribal communal landholdings into allotments for heads of families and individuals. It required the government to determine eligibility for allotments, prompting a federal definition of "Indian-ness." The law intended to transform Native Americans into yeoman farmers through individual land holdings. It also established a code of Indian offenses regulating behavior according to Euro-American norms.

Implementation and Impact. Passed in 1887, the act was implemented on a tribe-by-tribe basis. It granted U.S. citizenship to Native Americans who received allotments and adopted "civilized life" habits. Over its life, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of treaty land, or two-thirds of their 1887 land base. The act was seen as a culmination of attempts to destroy tribal governments and open lands to settlement.