The Dawes Act of 1887

in

1887 Congress passed the Daws General

allotment act it provided for each

Indian family to be given 160 Acres of

farming land and 320 Acres of grazing

land on the

reservation but then all the remaining

tribal land would be declared Surplus

and opened for whites to

purchase tribal ownership and the tribes

themselves

Were Meant to Simply

disappear before the allotment act

someone 150 million Acres remained in

Native hands within 20 years 2third of

their land had been

taken the allotment Act was one of the

most devastating acts for Indian people

they didn't understand private land

ownership you didn't own land the land

you were a part of of you used the land

for the resources as you needed them the

whole point of assimilating Indians

transforming Indians was to open this

area to settlement coming in that was

the purpose then that was the

government's goal