Dawes act

Treaty of Fort Laramie

1868 Treaty in which the Sioux agreed to live on a reservation

Indian reservation

is a legal designation for an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, rather than the state governments of the United States in which they are physically located.

Longhorn

one of a nearly extinct English breed of beef cattle having horns that are very long and curve forward dramatically.

The Dawes Commission

set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill in 1893, was created to try to persuade the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to allotment plans.

Assimilation

the process of adapting or adjusting to the culture of a group or nation, or the state of being so adapted:

During the 1850s, the United States federal government's attempt

to exert control over the Native Americans expanded. Numerous new European immigrants were settling on the eastern border of the Indian territories, where most of the Native Americans tribes were situated. Conflicts between the groups increased as they competed for resources and operated according to different cultural systems.

Chisholm Trail

was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland, from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The portion of the trail marked by Jesse Chisholm went from his southern trading post near the Red River, to his northern trading post near Kansas City, Kansas.

The objectives of the Dawes Act

were to lift the Native Americans out of poverty and to stimulate assimilation of them into mainstream American society.

The important provisions of the Dawes Act were:

A head of family would receive a grant of 160 acres, a single person or orphan over 18 years of age would receive a grant of 80 acres, and persons under the age of 18 would receive 40 acres each; the allotments would be held in trust by the U.S. Government for 25 years; Eligible Indians had four years to select their land; afterward the selection would be made for them by the Secretary of the Interior.

Henry Laurens Dawes

Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of Massachusetts.

Dawes Act

also known as General Allotment Act or Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

The Curtis Act of 1898

amended the Dawes Act to extend its provisions to the Five Civilized Tribes; it required abolition of their governments, allotment of communal lands to people registered as tribal members, and sale of lands declared surplus, as well as dissolving tribal courts. This completed the extinguishment of tribal land titles in Indian Territory, preparing it to be admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma.