The Dawes Act: An Act of Assimilation

The Dawes Act was imposed on Indian tribes in the United States.

It was designed in order to encourage Native Americans to assimilate into "proper" American culture. The expansion westward was forcing Indian tribes into smaller and smaller tracts of land and the government decided it was time to end the process of shoving Indians farther into unwanted territory. Therefore, a system of land division was devised. Each head-of-household in a native family received 160 acres of land, and each single individual or orphan received 80 acres. Minor children received 40 acres and the inheritance of their parents land upon their deaths. This system was designed to keep Indians in one place, they would build stationary homes, plant crops or find jobs in industry, and would live the life of normal Americans. In this way and others the government planned to obliterate Indian culture without actually obliterating Indians themselves. The Dawes Act served as a device to destroy culture and replace it with a more suitable American alternative. Indians no longer migrated, following disappearing game, and the ownership of land by an individual split the sense of community. Being that the nearest neighbor's plot of land was 160 acres from their own, Indians lost their sense of unity and were forced into American ways of life. (an Indian child in tradition celebratory dress, left; two Indian children in the late 1800s dressed to attend "white" school, right)