LAD/Blog #25: The Dawes Act

Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was an act where Native American reservation/tribal land was redistributed to individual Native Americans. basically, the U.S. government wanted to assimilate the Native Americans into the American lifestyle and culture. They planned to do this by making them farmers, and to do so they needed land to farm. Thus, the government offered 160 acres of land to the head of a family, and then 80 acres to single men. if these natives took the offer from the U.S. government, they were able to live and cultivate the land at the same time as becoming subject to both laws locally and federally. The U.S. wanted this to pass in order to improve the lives of the natives, but the transition was very difficult and painful. Native American lives only worsened.