Assimilation and The Dawes Act

Assimilation A New Policy O The US had seen 3 distinct policies regarding American Indians by the 1870ish (negotiate a move, force a move, reservations) O Starting in 1870ish some began a new policy of Assimilation  the other policies were not working as well so some thought the best way to deal with American Indians was to make them American and not Indian O The US began using policies to make Americans Indians more Americans by taking away their culture and replacing it with American culture

The Communal Lifestyle O One of the centerpieces of many American Indian societies was the aspect of the communal society  in many tribes there was no individual land ownership  the tribe in general owned the land  everybody worked together for the betterment of the whole O To further the assimilation process some Americans thought that they would need to destroy this idea and replace it with the idea of individual land ownership

Dawes Act O In 1887 Senator Henry Dawes passed the General Allotment Act (GAA) also known as the Dawes Act  this would give individual members of tribes pieces of land to use to work and live on  goal was to break up the communal aspect of Indian society  goal was to strengthen the nuclear family and away from the community family ***Since each Indian was given a certain amount of land the excess land was taken by the government and sold to non-Indians (often to the railroads)

Problems with Dawes Act O The land given to Indians was usually not sufficient to allow the family to make a living  Why not give them enough land to line on??? O There was also the problem that when parents died the land would be divided into smaller pieces (remember that the Indians are forced to live on the reservation so when the land shrunk it was not like the Indians could go someplace else) O After a period of time Indians could sell some of their land to non-Indians  the non-Indians would buy the land for cheap because the Indians were desperate for money

A Government Investigation O 1926 a report was called for by the Government to look into the American Indian situation  report found intense fraud in how the land was taken and used by both Indian leaders and BIA leaders  report found Dawes Act deprived Indians of the land that they were promised O 1934 Dawes Act is repealed