Dawes Lands in Severalty Act of 1887
Although well intentioned, the Dawes Act resulted in massive land losses for Native American tribes and ultimately resulted in widespread poverty and despair.
The Dawes Lands in Severalty Act was approved by the United States Congress on February 8, 1887. Conceived by Massachusetts Senator Henry L. Dawes, known as a Senate reformer who wanted to see justice brought to Native Americans, the Act would abolish traditional tribal land ownership by liquidating the reservations and providing land allotments to Native Americans. The goal was to turn Native Americans into farmers while at the same time extending them U.S. citizenship.
Provisions of the Dawes Act of 1887
Section One of the Dawes Act described the distribution of land:
- To each head of a family, one-quarter section (160 acres)
- To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section (80 acres)
- 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 (40 acres)
Each land allotment was secured by a “trust” title, held by the U.S. government for 25 years. During that time, the land could not be subject to mortgage or be sold, although leasing was not addressed, and this would prove to be a weakness in the Act. Additionally, the “trust” title conveyed citizenship.
Commenting on the Act in December 18, 1886, The New York Times stated that, “This is rightly regarded as the first step toward making the red man a citizen, with all a citizen’s rights, like the white man and the black.” The notion that citizenship of itself was tied to property ownership suggested, as the Times notes, an adoption of “the habits of civilized life.” The result would be “peace…law and order.” The legislation was frequently called the Indian Emancipation Act.
Results of the Dawes Act of 1887
Despite all of its good intentions, the Act failed to account for the acute cultural differences that worked against turning Native Americans into farmers, even if it took 25 years. It did not foresee unscrupulous government agents eager to benefit from the misfortunes of the Native peoples.
Tribal surplus land was bought by the federal government and then resold to white development interests, the proceeds held in trust to pay for Native American education and development. Congress amended this in 1907 and distributed pro-rata payments to “competent” Native Americans who usually squandered the money.
Some “trust” title holders leased their allotments to the cattle industry, never becoming farmers and ultimately losing the land. Those that died during the trust period lost the land to federal government sales with proceeds going to beneficiaries; the trust titles could not be inherited.
The sale of whiskey also played a negative role in the Dawes Act. With citizenship came the ability to purchase whiskey. In 1906, the Burke Amendment withdrew citizenship in all future allotments, extending the wait for citizenship to 25 years, equal to the period of the trust title.
Appraisal of the 1887 Dawes Act
Under the pre-Dawes Act reservation system, Native Americans owned approximately 137 million acres. After the Dawes Act, 90 million acres were lost. By 1933, of the estimated 325,000 Native Americans in the United States, one half were landless and living in dire poverty.
Even the members of the “Five Civilized Tribes” living in Oklahoma that had been exempt from the Act voluntarily sold their reservations lands in 1906 under federal pressure. The Dawes Act may have inadvertently hastened the loss of Native American lands and rather than providing a formula for the perceived attributes of “civilized” living, made the Native Americans permanent wards of the state. Native American culture would endure despite attempts to eradicate it.
Sources:
- The Dawes Lands in Severalty Act, nebraskastudies.org
- “The Indian Severalty Bill,” The New York Times, December 18, 1886.
- Frederick Merk, History of the Westward Movement (New York: Alfred A, Knopf, 1978)
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