Dawes Act Pros And Cons

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The Dawes Act, was introduced by Henry Dawes, a Senator from Massachusetts. Simply put, the Act broke up previous land settlements given to Native Americans in the form of reservations and separated them into smaller, separate parcels of land to live on. More importantly, the Act required Natives to live apart from their nations and assimilate into European culture. Dawes felt that the law, once fully realized, would save Native Americans from the alternative, which was their total slaughtering. However, the Dawes Act may in fact be the gold medal winner of all time when it comes to how often the best intentions result in the worst harm, since, ironically, it just about accomplished what Dawes claimed he was trying to avoid. The Act was supposed