Dawes act

Dawes act also known as

General Allotment Act or Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

During the Great Depression,

the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration supported passage on June 18, 1934 of the US Indian Reorganization Act (also known as the Wheeler-Howard Law). It ended land allotment and created a "New Deal" for Indians, renewing their rights to reorganize and form their self-governments.[3]

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.

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 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.

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.

The Act was named for its creator

Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of Massachusetts.

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.