The Dawes act Flashcards
What was the Dawes plan
The Dawes plan was when the US government gave the NA’s a certain amount of land and then sold the rest to white Americans
How much land were NA’s given?
160 acres of land
What were the terms of the act
- each head of the family would receive 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land
- more to be given to single persons or orphaned children
- after 35 years native Americans would have full ownership of the land
- unallotted land to be sold.
What was the point of this?
Assimilation and weakening tribal sovereignty.
How much land was used
150 million acres of reservations land recognised by the government in 1887 as belonging to the Indians, only 78 million acres were left in 1990
what did the five civilised tribes attempt to do against this?
proposing that their lands would become a separate state named Sequoyah but it was rejected in congress
what were the political impacts of this act?
- Tribal lands were no longer ‘protected’ by the US government
- Areas which had previously been reservations were now formed into new states of American
What were the economic impacts of this act?
- Plains Indians struggled to farm the land given
- Many families ended up having to sell their land
- Many plains Indians were refused to own the land they were give and sank into poverty & illness
- Some plains Indians gave up farming all together and had to look for work in order to provide their family with food and resources
What were the social impacts of this act
- With no reservations, tribal structures were broken up, Tribal chiefs no longer had influence
- The daws act takes away the unity of a tribe and turned Plains Indians into individuals
- Many Plains Indians turned to addictive substances such as alcohol to deal with the changes
-Led to more Plains Indians forced to ‘mix’ and integrate into American life - Land was no longer ‘reserved for plains Indians’
