Editing Henry L. Dawes

{{short description|American politician (1816–1903)}}
{{redirect|Senator Dawes|the Nebraska state senate member|James W. Dawes}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = 
| name = Henry Laurens Dawes
| honorific-suffix = 
| image = HLDawes (1).jpg
| alt = 
| jr/sr = United States Senator
| state = [[Massachusetts]]
| term_start1 = March 4, 1875
| term_end1 = March 3, 1893
| predecessor1 = [[William B. Washburn]]
| successor1 = [[Henry Cabot Lodge]]
| office2 = Member of the<br>[[U.S. House of Representatives]]<br> from Massachusetts
| term_start2 = March 4, 1857
| term_end2 = March 4, 1875
| predecessor2 = [[Mark Trafton]]
| successor2 = [[Chester W. Chapin]]
| constituency2 = {{ushr|MA|11|C}} (1857–1863)<br>{{ushr|MA|10|C}} (1863–1873)<br>{{ushr|MA|11|C}} (1873–1875)
| state_senate5 = Massachusetts
| district5 = [[Berkshire County, Massachusetts|Berkshire]]
| term5 = 1850
| predecessor5 = [[John Z. Goodrich]]<br>William A. Phelps
| successor5 = Richard P. Brown<br>Asa G. Welch
| office6 = Member of the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]]
| term6 = 1848–1849<br>1852
| birth_date = {{birth date|1816|10|30}}
| birth_place = [[Cummington, Massachusetts]], US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1903|2|5|1816|10|30}}
| death_place = [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], US
| spouse = 
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| relations = 
| children = 5
| residence = 
| alma_mater = [[Yale University]]
| occupation = 
| profession = Lawyer and Doctor
| religion = 
| signature = Henry L. Dawes, Representative from Massachusetts, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait LCCN2010649211 (signature).jpg
| signature_alt = 
| website = 
| footnotes = 
}}

'''Henry Laurens Dawes''' (October 30, 1816{{spaced ndash}}February 5, 1903) was an attorney and politician, a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senator]] and [[United States Representative]] from Massachusetts. He is notable for the [[Dawes Act]] (1887), which was intended to stimulate the assimilation of Native Americans by ending the tribal government and control of communal lands. Especially directed at the tribes in [[Indian Territory]], it provided for the allotment of tribal lands to individual households of tribal members, and for their being granted United States citizenship. This also made them subject to state and federal taxes. In addition, extinguishing tribal land claims in this territory later enabled the admission of [[Oklahoma]] as a state in 1907.

==Early life==
Dawes was born in [[Cummington, Massachusetts]], in 1816. After graduating from [[Yale University]] in 1839, he taught at [[Greenfield, Massachusetts]], and also edited ''The Greenfield Gazette''.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Dawes, Henry Laurens|volume=7|page=873}}</ref>

He studied law with an established firm, and in 1842, was admitted to the bar. He began the practice of law in the village of [[North Adams, Massachusetts]]. For a time he edited ''The [[North Adams Transcript]]''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Political career==
Dawes joined the Republican Party and was elected to the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]], serving in 1848–1849 and in 1852. He served in the state Senate in 1850. He was elected as a delegate to the [[Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

From 1853 to 1857, he served as appointed state district attorney for the western district of Massachusetts.<ref name="EB1911"/> He was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1856, serving multiple terms until 1875. In 1868, he received 2,000 shares of stock in the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal|Crédit Mobilier of America]] railroad construction company from Representative [[Oakes Ames]], as part of the [[Union Pacific]] railway's influence-buying efforts.

In March 1871, Dawes supported federal financing for [[Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden]]'s [[Hayden Geological Survey of 1871|fifth geological survey of the territories]], which became a driving force in the creation of [[Yellowstone National Park]]. Dawes's son, Chester Dawes, was a member of the survey team. ''Annie'', the first commercial boat on Yellowstone Lake, was purportedly named after his daughter, Anna Dawes. In late 1871 and early 1872, Dawes became an ardent supporter of a bill to create [[Yellowstone National Park]] in order to preserve its wilderness and resources.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Merrill, Marlene Deahl |title=Yellowstone and the Great West – Journals, Letters and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |year=1999 |isbn=0-8032-3148-2 }}</ref>

In 1875, he was chosen by the state legislature (as was the practice at the time) to succeed [[William B. Washburn]] as [[U.S. Senator]] from Massachusetts. He served multiple terms, until 1893.
[[File:HenryLDawes.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Henry L. Dawes]]

During his long period of legislative activity, Dawes served in the House on the committees on elections, ways and means, and appropriations. He took a prominent part in passage of the anti-slavery and [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] measures during and after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], in tariff legislation, and in the establishment of a fish commission. He also initiated the production of daily weather reports to be provided by the federal government.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In the Senate, Dawes was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. He concentrated on enactment of laws that he believed were for the benefit of the Indians. In the late 19th century, after the [[Indian Wars]], there were widespread fears that the Indians were disappearing and that their tribes would cease to exist. In the West, Indians had been forced onto reservations and were struggling with poor lands and too little area, as well as encroachment by white settlers. In the East, most Indians were landless and were largely believed to have entered or been marginal to majority culture. Well-meaning people such as Dawes believed that the Indians had to assimilate to majority culture to survive, and should take up subsistence farming, still dominant in agriculture.

In 1869, Dawes became a founding member of the Monday Evening Club, a men's literary society in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]].<ref>[http://mondayeveningclub.blogspot.com/2009/08/clubs-historic-membership-roster-part-i.html Monday Evening Club website]</ref>

===Strategist for "Half-Breed" Republicans===
During the presidency of [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] (spanning 1877–81), Dawes was a prominent member of congressional "[[Half-Breeds (politics)|Half-Breeds]]" within the Republican Party allied with Hayes' support for [[Civil service reform in the United States|civil service reform]].<ref>Welch, Richard E., Jr. (1968). [https://vermonthistory.org/journal/misc/GeorgeEdmunds.pdf ''George Edmunds of Vermont: Republican Half-Breed''], p. 65. ''Vermont History''. Retrieved March 4, 2022.</ref> Along with fellow Massachusetts senatorial Half-Breed [[George F. Hoar]] and Rep. [[John Davis Long]], he became one of the faction's leading strategists.<ref name=p.67-68>''George Edmunds of Vermont'', p. 67–68.</ref>

During the [[1880 United States presidential election]], the agreed strategy planned was to prevent either former president [[Ulysses S. Grant]], the leader of "[[Stalwarts (politics)|Stalwarts]]," nor [[Blaine faction]] leader [[James G. Blaine]] of Maine, from obtaining the nomination at the [[Republican National Convention]].<ref name=p.67-68/> Instead, the Half-Breeds would push to nominate faction member [[George F. Edmunds]], a senator from [[Vermont]].

However, Sen. Hoar admonished Half-Breed supporters that Republican delegates should not make their preferences clearly visible to others.<ref name=p.67-68/> Although the Massachusetts delegation did support Edmunds, the Vermont Half-Breed failed to garner enough support, and the faction ultimately formed an alliance with Blaine supporters in successfully nominating [[James A. Garfield]] of [[Ohio]].

===Dawes accepts Blaine into Half-Breed ranks===
When President Garfield took office, Blaine was made [[United States Secretary of State]] for the administration. The Maine Republican's credentials as a Half-Breed were spotty due to his history of antipathy towards civil service reform, though nonetheless were welcomed by Hoar and Dawes as a member of the faction.<ref name=p.67-68/> However, Edmunds, who Half-Breeds supported in 1880, broke from Dawes and Hoar in refusing to accept Blaine as a genuine convert.<ref name=p.67-68/> Indeed, the Vermont senator refused to support Blaine when the latter was nominated by the Republican National Convention in the [[United States presidential election, 1884|1884 presidential election]].

===Support for civil service reform===
Like all early Half-Breeds who were relatively prominent during the Hayes presidency, Dawes supported civil service reform. During the presidency of [[James A. Garfield]], he wrote two letters at separate occasions in July 1881 on the matter.<ref>July 22 1881. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/07/22/102753371.pdf CIVIL SERVICE REFORM; SENATOR DAWES WRITES A LETTER ON THE SUBJECT.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved March 4, 2022.</ref><ref>July 30, 1881. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/07/30/102754881.pdf CIVIL SERVICE REFORM; ANOTHER LETTER FROM SENATOR DAWES.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved March 4, 2022.</ref>

===Dawes Act===
His most prominent achievement in Congress was the passage in 1887 of the '''General Allotment Act of 1887''' ('''[[Dawes Act]]'''), ch. 119, 24 Stat. 388, {{usc|25|331}} ''et seq.'', which authorized the [[President of the United States]] to survey Indian tribal lands, and divide the area into allotments for the individual Indian or household. It was intended to assimilate Indians by breaking up their tribal governments and communal lands, and by encouraging them to undertake subsistence farming, then widespread in American society. It was enacted February 8, 1887, and named for Dawes, its sponsor. The Act was amended in 1891, 1898 by the [[Curtis Act]], and in 1906, by the [[Burke Act]].

The [[Dawes Commission]], set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill in 1893, was created not to administer the Act but to attempt to persuade the tribes excluded from the Act by treaties to agree to the allotment plan. After gaining agreement from representatives of the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] in Indian Territory, the commission appointed registrars to register members on rolls prior to allotment of lands. Many tribes have since based membership and citizen qualifications on descent from persons listed as Indians on the [[Dawes Rolls]]. (Also listed were freedmen of each tribe, and intermarried whites.) The [[Curtis Act of 1898]] extended the provisions of the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes, abolishing tribal jurisdiction of their communal lands.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}

On leaving the Senate in 1893, Dawes became chairman of the commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, also known as the Dawes Commission, and served for ten years. He negotiated with the tribes for the extinction of the communal title to their land and for the dissolution of the tribal governments. The goal was to make tribal members a constituent part of the United States.<ref name="EB1911"/> In the process, Native American tribes lost about 90{{spaces}}million acres (360,000{{spaces}}km<sup>2</sup>) of treaty land, or about two thirds of their 1887 land base, over the life of the [[Dawes Act]]. About 90,000 Indians were made landless. The Act forced Native people onto small tracts of land, distant from their kin relations. The allotment policy depleted the land base and ended hunting as a means of subsistence, creating a crisis for many tribes.

The [[Coolidge administration]] studied the effects of the Dawes Act and the current conditions for Indians in what is known as the ''[[Meriam Report]]'', completed in 1928. It found that the Dawes Act had been used illegally to deprive Native Americans of their land rights.

==Death==
Dawes died in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], on February 5, 1903.<ref>{{cite news |title=Henry L. Dawes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1903/02/07/archives/henry-l-dawes.html |quote=Ex-Senator Dawes had been for ten years out of public life when he died, and ten years is a long while for the memory of public service to last in so busy a land{{spaces}}... |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=February 7, 1903 |access-date=2012-09-18}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[Aidan Quinn]] played Dawes in the film ''[[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (film)|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee]]'', adapted from a 1970 history of Native Americans, the United States, and the West written by [[Dee Brown (writer)|Dee Brown]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Henry L. Dawes}}
{{CongBio|D000148}} Retrieved on 2009-04-23
*[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=50&page=transcript "Dawes Act"], Our Documents.gov website

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{{US House succession box
| state = Massachusetts
| district = 11
| before = [[Mark Trafton]]
| reason = District eliminated
| years = 1857–1863}}
{{US House succession box
| state = Massachusetts
| district = 10
| before = [[Charles Delano]]
| after = [[Alvah Crocker]]
| years = 1863–1873}}
{{US House succession box
| state = Massachusetts
| district = 11
| new = district
| after = [[Chester W. Chapin]]
| years = 1873–1875}}
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{{U.S. Senator box
| state = Massachusetts
| class = 1
| before = [[William B. Washburn]]
| after = [[Henry Cabot Lodge]]
| alongside = [[George S. Boutwell]] and [[George F. Hoar]]
| years = 1875–1893}}
{{S-end}}

{{USSenMA}}
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{{SenIndianAffairsCommitteeChairmen}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, Henry L.}}
[[Category:1816 births]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Cummington, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Deans of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party United States senators from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party Massachusetts state senators]]
[[Category:County district attorneys in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:19th-century American newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Editors of Massachusetts newspapers]]
[[Category:Massachusetts lawyers]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of the Reconstruction Era]]
[[Category:Half-Breeds (Republican Party)]]
[[Category:Civil service reform in the United States]]
[[Category:Dawes Rolls]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century United States senators]]