Impact Of The Dawes General Allotment Act On Native American Tribes And Their Culture

Introduction

As a member of The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, this essay topic was chosen to further explore my family’s background. My great-great grandma, Ora Marguerite McLellan, was born on December 27, 1904, and is listed on the Final Dawes Roll as number 554. She is listed as Choctaw by blood and was added to the Dawes Rolls as a newborn. My father, who is Native American and lives in Oklahoma, does not have much knowledge or insight about our family or the trials they experienced. My great-great grandma’s generation was reluctant to identify as Native American due to the stigmas associated with their culture and thereupon did not pass down the history to any future generations. It compelled me to discover more about my ancestors, completing

Lifestyles of the Native Americans in the Five Civilized Tribes before and after the Dawes Act will be investigated to get a better understanding of the life and cultural changes these people endured. The impacts include the splitting up of land and the redistribution of the land to individual tribe members, and the introduction of "white culture," such as farming, to the Native

This was due to the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek that was signed in 1830. The treaty promised that the Five Civilized Tribes could keep their land in Oklahoma “As long as the grass grows and water runs.” These tribes included the Cherokee, the Creek, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Seminole. In 1890, Congress attempted to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes to initiate an allotment agreement. These negotiations typically ended with threats being made to several tribes in Oklahoma, including the Cherokee. The Curtis Act of 1898 extended the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. The first of the five tribes to submit to the threats and negotiations was the Cherokee. In 1900, this resulted in close to 15 million acres of Native American land being sold as surplus to white buyers. Even with the Cherokee submitting to the government, the Creek Tribe was resisting the Allotment Act. Consequently, the white settlers became so desperate for the Indians' land that they married into the tribes to get on the tribal roll, which allowed them to become eligible to receive land allotments. They were also able to steal the land away by talking the Native Americans out of their allotments or by using other nefarious means such as