The Dawes Act of 1887 allowed the US government to divide Native American communal land into individual parcels, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs having control over the process. It was intended to help assimilate Native Americans into society but is now seen as mostly harmful. The law disrupted traditional ways of life and distributed land unfairly, with reports of corruption and abuse. It also imposed a European socio-economic system and deprived women of power.
The Dawes Act, also called the General Allotment Act, was a law passed in 1887 by the United States federal government to regulate Native American land. It allows the government to take some collective property reserves and divide them into separately owned parcels. This law led to the creation of the Dawes Rolls, which the government used to carry out a relatively comprehensive accounting of the native population in certain areas. The bill was explicitly intended to help Native Americans assimilate into society.
The bill does not specify which bookings it affects. Instead, it gives the government the power, through an executive decision, treaty, or further act of Congress, to designate lands as subject to allotment. In practice, the Bureau of Indian Affairs appears to have had fairly complete control over the process. The Dawes Act also exempts a number of specific tribes; however, many of these were brought under its purview by later amendments.
The Dawes Act has been described as benevolent when it passed. In fact, it has been publicly billed as a response to Helen Hunt Jackson’s Century of Dishonore, a book detailing various injustices perpetrated against American Indians. Jackson published the book in 1881 and distributed copies throughout Congress.
The law was supposed to help Indians survive in the modern world and protect them from white settlers attempting to encroach on their land. Unsurprisingly, however, modern historians describe it as mostly harmful to the people it affected. The division of communal land into individual parcels disrupted a traditional way of life which revolved around activities such as hunting. It is further argued that the law distributed land unfairly and without regard for the welfare of the recipients.
There have also been reports of serious cases of corruption and abuse within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A study published in 1928, known as the Meriam Report, confirmed suspicions that the inhabitants of the reservation had been deprived of their best land and forced to move to areas where it was very difficult to make a living. According to the Meriam Report, the Dawes Act had also failed to promote assimilation.
The Dawes Act disrupted native culture in other ways as well. By designating land according to social status, it imposed a model inherited from the European socio-economic system. For example, by designating men as heads of households, it deprived women of the status and power they once had. In essence, it promoted a European approach to marriage and the family.
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