Eighth Grade Native American Land Curriculum Part II – Lesson 4 Policies and Laws – Allotment and Extermination

Policies and Laws - Allotment After it became clear that reservations were not working, the federal government enacted a new policy called Allotment. The Act spoke to those Americans who felt that Native Americans would never become Americanized living in large communities like on the reservations. Poster advertising Indian land for sale in the west was a result of the United States policy called allotment. Poster courtesy of virginiawestern.edu

The Dawes Severalty Act The Dawes Severalty Act allowed the President to give – or allot – 160 acres of reservation land to individual Native Americans. Each person would receive the final title to the land after taking care of the land for 25 years. Many believed that the Act would encourage individuals to own land and make money farming, which would be a form of Americanization. Photos of the Dawes Commission responsible for the Dawes Act courtesy of digital.library.okstate.edu

More Loss of Native American Land Any land that was unclaimed after allotment would be sold to white settlers. When allotment went into effect, Native Americans still owned over 138 million acres of land. When the Dawes Act was repealed 47 years later, 90 million acres had been lost, which is a 60% loss of land. Map showing loss of Native land from 1850 to 1990 courtesy of s188.photobucket.com

Uncooperative Native Americans Even though many Native Americans had been affected by the reservation and allotment systems, there were still others who had resisted both. This group of uncooperative Native Americans concerned the federal government, so they enacted yet another policy – Extermination. Poster depicting Native Americans as the first Homeland Security Council courtesy of diversityrules.typepad.com

Policies and Laws - Extermination There were some Americans who believed that by being uncooperative with United States policies, these tribes were basically declaring war with the U.S. This belief led to the U.S. Army declaring war on several tribes, eliminating resisters, and seeking to subjugate any survivors. Picture of Indian Wars in the Great Plains courtesy of taramaso.seesaa.net

Indian Wars in the Late 19 th Century Official U.S. military records show that from 1776 to 1907, the U.S. Army was involved in 1,470 official actions against Native Americans. This number does not include the hundreds if not thousands of hostile actions taken by private armies against Native Americans. Picture of western Indian Wars courtesy of truth-is.info

Indian Wars from The majority of these actions took place during this 25 year period when the federal government declared war on uncooperative tribes. According to Army records, it was involved in 1,065 combat engagements with Native Americans. Soldiers killed: 948 Soldiers wounded: 1,058 Native Americans killed: 4,371 Native Americans wounded: 1,279

A Case Study: The Lakota Sioux Click here to read a case study of the Lakota Sioux. This study provides a tragic example of the governmental policy of extermination.here Discussion Questions: What did the Fort Laramie Treaty promise the Sioux? Did the massacre at the Battle of Little Bighorn justify the nullification of the treaty? Why or why not? Why do you think the Ghost Dance was so threatening to the US Army? Do you think the final massacre of the Lakota brought about the long-awaited Americanization of their people? Photo of a Lakota Camp courtesy of old-picture.com Map of Lakota territory courtesy of culturecircle.meetup.com