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Essay On The Dawes Act

599 Words3 Pages

The Dawes act was passed on December 16, 1887 and signed by President Cleveland on February 8, 1887. This allowed the government to give Native Americans ownership to a given piece of land. However, this did not apply to Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek or Seminole tribes who had become civilized on their own, without the help of the government. As a result, requirements to this new law was foreign to Native Americans, and they were unable decipher and do the things that were now required of them as quickly as the government was implementing the law. The government knew that the Native Americans were uneducated to the new forms that are being implemented on their tribes, and were able to take advantage of them. Resulting from the Dawes Act, The Native American’s are now required to choose their own land to live on and only have four years to do so. Most Indians will not do this in the time frame and the government choses their land for them. The Indians have only known hunting and their nomadic lifestyle following the buffalo with their tribes. Ownership to land was completely overwhelming and unheard of to them. The tribes …show more content…

Graciously but manipulatively, the Indians were ensured that they were given enough land to live on. The Allotment supporters believed that this was the only option to reduce violence and benefit both the Native Americans and white settlers. Although, the Native Americans were ensured that they were given enough land to live on, they did not know how to farm on a given piece of land that they were tied down to, they are nomadic people. This also meant that the government knew that there would be leftover land that they could sell to the white settlers which they believed would reduce the violence over settlers coming onto the Indian

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