Editing Dawes Act (section)

{{short description|US legislative act regulating Native American tribal lands}}
{{Distinguish|Dawes Plan}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = Dawes Act
| othershorttitles = Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
| longtitle = An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes.
| colloquialacronym = 
| nickname =  General Allotment Act of 1887
| enacted by = 49th
| effective date = February 8, 1887
| public law url = 
| cite public law = {{USPL|49|105}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|24|388}}
| acts amended = 
| acts repealed = 
| title amended = [[Title 25 of the United States Code|25 U.S.C.: Indians]]
| sections created = {{Usc-title-chap|25|9}} § 331 et seq.
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl = 
| introducedin = Senate
| introducedbill = 
| introducedby = [[Henry L. Dawes]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[Massachusetts|MA]])
| introduceddate = 
| committees = 
| passedbody1 = 
| passeddate1 = 
| passedvote1 = 
| passedbody2 = 
| passedas2 = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2 = 
| passedvote2 = 
| conferencedate = 
| passedbody3 = 
| passeddate3 = 
| passedvote3 = 
| agreedbody3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreeddate3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedvote3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedbody4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreeddate4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreedvote4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4 = 
| passeddate4 = 
| passedvote4 = 
| signedpresident = [[Grover Cleveland]]
| signeddate = February 8, 1887
| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| unsigneddate = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| vetoedpresident = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| vetoeddate = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenvote1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
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| amendments = 
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}}
{{Grover Cleveland series}}

The '''Dawes Act of 1887''' (also known as the '''General Allotment Act''' or the '''Dawes Severalty Act of 1887'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol1/html_files/ses0033.html | title=General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act), Act of Feb. 8, 1887 (24 Stat. 388, ch. 119, 25 USCA 331), Acts of Forty-ninth Congress–Second Session, 1887 | access-date=2011-02-03 | archive-date=2011-05-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525120250/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/SES0033.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Dawes 1887">{{cite web | url= http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=50 | title= Dawes Act (1887) |website= OurDocuments.gov |publisher= National Archives and Records Administration | access-date=2015-08-15}}</ref>) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator [[Henry L. Dawes]] of [[Massachusetts]], it authorized the President of the United States to subdivide [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. This would convert traditional systems of [[Land tenure#Traditional land tenure|land tenure]] into a government-imposed system of [[private property]] by forcing Native Americans to "assume a [[Capitalism|capitalist]] and proprietary relationship with property" that did not previously exist in their cultures.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Settlement of America: An Encyclopedia of Westward Expansion from Jamestown to the Closing of the Frontier|last=Blansett|first=Kent|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=9780765619846|editor-last=Crutchfield|editor-first=James A.|pages=161–162|editor-last2=Moutlon|editor-first2=Candy|editor-last3=Del Bene|editor-first3=Terry}}</ref> Before private property could be dispensed, the government had to determine which Indians were eligible for allotments, which propelled an official search for a federal definition of "Indian-ness".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought, 10th Anniversary Edition|last=Grande|first=Sandy|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2015|isbn=9781610489898|pages=142–143}}</ref>

Although the act was passed in 1887, the federal government implemented the Dawes Act on a tribe-by-tribe basis thereafter. For example, in 1895, Congress passed the [[Hunter Act]], which administered the Dawes Act among the [[Southern Ute Indian Reservation|Southern Ute]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender|last=M. B. Osburn|first=Katherine|publisher=NYU Press|year=1998|isbn=9780814796832|editor-last=Mccall|editor-first=Laura|pages=247|editor-last2=Yacovone|editor-first2=Donald}}</ref> The nominal purpose of the act was to protect the property of the natives as well as to compel "[[Cultural assimilation of Native Americans|their absorption into the American mainstream]]".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Friedman|first=Lawrence M.|title=A History of American Law: Third Edition|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2005|isbn=9780684869889|pages=387}}</ref>

Native peoples who were deemed to be mixed-blood were granted U.S. citizenship, while others were "[[Detribalization|detribalized]]".<ref name=":1" /> Between 1887 and 1934, Native Americans ceded control of about 100 million acres of land (as of 2019 the United States has a total 1.9 billion acres of land<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/07/26/745731823/the-u-s-has-nearly-1-9-billion-acres-of-land-heres-how-it-is-used|title = The U.S. Has Nearly 1.9 Billion Acres of Land. Here's How It is Used|website = NPR.org}}</ref>) or about "two-thirds of the land base they held in 1887" as a result of the act.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: Volume 2 Hispanic Americans and Native Americans|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2000|isbn=9781573561495|editor-last=Schultz|editor-first=Jeffrey D.|pages=608|editor-last2=Aoki|editor-first2=Andrew L.|editor-last3=Haynie|editor-first3=Kerry L.|editor-last4=McCulloch|editor-first4=Anne M.}}</ref> The loss of land ownership and the break-up of traditional leadership of tribes produced potentially negative cultural and social effects that have since prompted some scholars to consider the act as one of the most destructive U.S. policies for Native Americans in history.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

The "[[Five Civilized Tribes]]" ([[Cherokee]], [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], [[Muscogee]], and [[Seminole]]) in Indian Territory were initially exempt from the Dawes Act. The [[Dawes Commission]] was established in 1893 as a delegation to register members of tribes for allotment of lands. They came to define tribal belonging in terms of [[Blood quantum laws|blood-quantum]]. However, because there was no method of determining precise bloodlines, commission members often assigned "full-blood status" to Native Americans who were perceived as "poorly-assimilated" or "legally incompetent", and "mixed-blood status" to Native Americans who "most resembled whites", regardless of how they identified culturally.<ref name=":1" />

The [[Curtis Act of 1898]] extended the provisions of the Dawes Act to the "Five Civilized Tribes", required the abolition of their governments and dissolution of tribal courts, allotment of communal lands to individuals registered as tribal members, and sale of lands declared surplus. This law was "an outgrowth of the [[Land Rush of 1889|land rush of 1889]], and completed the extinction of Indian land claims in the territory. This violated the promise of the United States that the [[Indian Territory|Indian territory]] would remain Indian land in perpetuity," completed the obliteration of tribal land titles in Indian Territory, and prepared for admission of the territory land to the Union as the state of [[Oklahoma]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: Volume 2 Hispanic Americans and Native Americans|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2000|isbn=9781573561495|editor-last=Schultz|editor-first=Jeffrey D.|pages=607|editor-last2=Aoki|editor-first2=Andrew L.|editor-last3=Haynie|editor-first3=Kerry L.|editor-last4=McCulloch|editor-first4=Anne M.}}</ref> The Dawes Act was amended again in 1906 under the [[Burke Act]].

During the [[Great Depression]], the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] administration passed the US [[Indian Reorganization Act]] (also known as the Wheeler-Howard Law) on June 18, 1934. It prohibited any further land allotment and created a "[[New Deal]]" for Native Americans, which renewed their rights to reorganize and form self-governments in order to "rebuild an adequate land base."<ref>[http://salempress.com/store/samples/thirties_in_america/thirties_in_america_indian.htm "The Thirties in America: Indian Reorganization Act"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828003943/http://salempress.com/store/samples/thirties_in_america/thirties_in_america_indian.htm |date=2013-08-28 }}, Salem Press, Retrieved August 13, 2013.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto|last=Deloria|first=Vine Jr.|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1988|isbn=9780806121291|pages=54}}</ref>
[[File:Dawes Act - First Page.jpg|thumb|The first page of the Dawes Act]]
[[File:Dawes Act - Last Page.jpg|thumb|The second page of the Dawes Act]]