The Dawes Act and its Effect on Native Americans

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The Dawes Act had a negative impact on Native American culture due to the attempted assimilation into Euro-American culture by converting to Christianity, education administered by Christian Euro-Americans, and U.S. government regulation of selling and ownership of tribal land. Created in 1887, the act allowed the distribution of Native American tribal land. The act was amended twice, once in 1891 and again in 1906, which remained in effect until 1934. On February 8, 1887, the United States Congress decided to pass the Dawes Act also known as the General Allotment Act. The Dawes Act was named after its writer Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. The congressmen who sought to pass and enforce the Dawes Act aimed at pushing the Native Americans into assimilation at a high pace. The reformers of the act also expected Native Americans owning private property to build a foundation on which the natives could support themselves and their families (Stremlau, 265). The Act allowed the President of the United States to break up Indian reservation land into 160 acre allotments, and divide it out among each individual Native American. The Dawes Act Stated, “To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and to each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section…” (PBS-Archive of the West). The act also determined which tribal lands were too allotted. Tribes such as the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and many mo... ... middle of paper ... ...or Dawes was a very important point and lists many of the reasons why the Dawes Act was not successful. In most cases Native American families were just thrown onto their allotments with very little education and preparation on how to farm their new land. How is a Native American supposed to become an Americanized and civilized farmer if he has never even held a hoe or a plough in his life? During the creation of the Dawes Act, it was also believed that for the act to be successful there must be major adjustments and an emphasis on the youth Indian education system. It was believed that if Native American children were introduced to American culture while they were young, and if they were taught in schools with a white cultural background and U.S. citizenship, they would turn into educated, skilled farmers (Otis 80). Although these new Indian boarding schools

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