Dawes Act Essay

The depth of hostility felt by many white Americans toward the Indians was very aggressive in my opinion. I personally do not understand why they were so cruel to the Native Americans when the Indians were there first. I understand the concept that they needed to have sustainability and needs, but I think the white Americans did it the wrong way. Next, I think the main goal of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was to compromise and share the land equally with the Indians.

The government had the power over reservations of Nations, and could divide them up amongst individual Native Americans. The Dawes Allotment Act, affected Native sovereignty because the Native Government had no say in what their land would be used for. The text stated, "Indian

The migration of Americans to the west was a good thing for innovation and building up the United States as a country, but the Native Americans who lived in these lands were changed forever. Any Native Americans found in lands where United States citizens wanted land was immediately excavated from their land and brought to an Indian reservation of some kind. Overtime though, these Indian reservations began to limit due to the rising population in Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “They [Lewis and Clark] provided valuable information about the topography, the biological sciences, the ecology, and ethnic and linguistic studies of the American Indian. The mysteries of

However, this did not mean they were able to keep their land the way you might expect, and, is in fact, perhaps, one of the monstrous legislatives we have ever given to Natives. This act demolished, already identified boundaries, broke tribes apart as communal units, and threatened the cultural aspects of each tribe. This act applied to all Native American tribes, except: the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Osage, Miami, Sac, Fox, Peoria, and Seneca nations. This act, was actually named for Massachusetts Congressman Henry Dawes, who claimed that private property had the power to civilize, even the most basic brutes, and according to Dawes, the very act of being civilized, was to “wear civilized clothes, cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey (and) own property.” Under the Dawes Act, the allotted persons would hold the land for 25 years; consequently, the land would then go to the individuals who had held that chunk of land or to their heirs, in which they would gain the title of American Citizen.

The Dakota were being squeezed into smaller areas. Moving from previously prime hunting and fishing grounds to increasing smaller non-productive reservations, harsh winters and low supplies created times that that left many native families hungry and frustrated. Throughout the 1800’s, treaties were negotiated with the Dakota and the U. S. Government and native lands were exchanged for money, farming supplies and debt payments. These treaties were not in favor of the native population. By the late 1850’s, treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian Agents, those authorized to interact with natives on behalf of the U.S. Government, caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota.

Native Americans who emigrated from Europe perceived the Indians as a friendly society with whom they dwelt with in harmony. While Native Americans were largely intensive agriculturalists and entrepreneurial in nature, the Indians were hunters and gatherers who earned a livelihood predominantly as nomads. By the 19th century, irrefutable territories i.e. the areas around River Mississippi were under exclusive occupation by the Indians. At the time, different Indian tribes such as the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees had adapted a sedentary lifestyle and practiced small-scale agriculture. According to the proponents of removal, the Indians were to move westwards into forested lands in order to generate additional space for development through agricultural production (Memorial of the Cherokee Indians).

Some were even “forced to turn to government reservations” due to the lack of buffalo for food and clothing (Philbrick, 2010, p. 31). Three main opinions arose in the natives. Some wanted to migrate to the reservations forever, others only for the winter, and even more refused to at all (Philbrick, 2010,

Dawes Severalty Act De Juan Evans-Taylor Humboldt State University  Abstract The Dawes Act of 1887, some of the time alluded to as the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 or the General Allotment Act, was marked into law on January 8, 1887, by US President Grover Cleveland. This was approved by the president to appropriate and redistribute tribal grounds in the American West. It expressly tried to crush the social union of Indian tribes and to along these lines dispose of the rest of the remnants of Indian culture and society. Just by repudiating their own customs, it was accepted, could the Indians at any point turn out to be genuinely "American."

More indians tribes were destroyed during war with the whites, and since the Native Americans did not have as much technology, food, and medicine as the whites, they lost a lot of warriors. Many Native Americans would leave their tribes in search for food only to be confronted and ambushed by white soldiers. Some Native Americans chose to surrender rather than to be moved to a different location. After the Indian and American War, the General Allotment Act was passed, also known as The Dawes Act of 1887. The Dawes Act granted Native Americans land allotments.

The Dawes Act of 1887 was built to make changes in policies towards American Indians. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted United States citizenship. A family would receive 160 acres and a single person would receive 80 acres, if you were under the age of 18 you would receive 40 acres. Anything else that was left was passed on to white settlers. A few things reformers wanted to achieve are the breaking up of tribes, assisting the advancement of native farmers, securing parts of the reservations as Indian

Specifically, Cleveland argued that the act would give Indians the opportunity to adjust to American culture, by allowing them to begin farming their own land. Furthermore, privatization is a sure way to increase output and quality. We wholeheartedly agreed with Cleveland on this point, and felt that the Dawes Act was a solution to a myriad of problems plaguing the Wild West. Therefore, we voted in favor of Grover Cleveland on the subject of the Dawes Act during the third

Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.

When the Europeans began colonizing the New World, they had a problematic relationship with the Native Americans. The Europeans sought to control a land that the Natives inhabited all their lives. They came and decided to take whatever they wanted regardless of how it affected the Native Americans. They legislated several laws, such as the Indian Removal Act, to establish their authority. The Indian Removal Act had a negative impact on the Native Americans because they were driven away from their ancestral homes, forced to adopt a different lifestyle, and their journey westwards caused the deaths of many Native Americans.

Many of them were forced to be hired out to the white farmers of the West. With the rapid expansion of men and women in the West, the Native Americans lost their freedom to roam the plains. Often leading to armed conflicts such as the Great Sioux War, and eventually causing the signatures of many unwanted treaty 's. In turn leading to the confinement of Native Americans to reservations. In conclusion, due to the large amount of European, Asian, Mexican, Canadian, and African American men and women migrating to the West, many if not all men and women (due to their different cultures) were met with strong opposition from the

First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity.