by Matty Z

Created on: October 21, 2010   Last Updated: October 22, 2010

Dawes Act: A Benefit to White America

Senator Henry Dawes created the Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act, in 1887. The main principle was to make the American Indian a landowner, thus eliminating the tribal system that the Indians followed. Every head of an Indian family received one fourth of a section of allotted land. A single male eighteen years old or older received one eighth of land. Children under the age of eighteen, born after the Dawes Act was implemented, were given one sixteenth of land. The government had the right to hold a protective trust over the land for 25 years. After the 25 years, The American Indian was then officially an American citizen with the right to do as he wished with his land.

The Dawes Act destroyed the Indian rather than adjusting them in the Anglo-American society. By forcing the Indian to be individual landowners rather than a tribe that emphasizes on the sharing of land, the Indian culture and way of life was destroyed. (Washburn, 242) More Indians became increasingly landless after the implement of the Dawes Act, suggesting it was a failed attempt in bringing the Indian into white society. (Carson, 276)

Although the Dawes Act devastated the Indian way of life and made thousands of them landless, it benefited America in two ways. The land the government gained from the Indians provided great opportunities for Americans. The ongoing war between the Native American and the Anglo influenced American was now over, giving America access to the west.

The Dawes Act was meant to give land to the Indians and help bring them into white society, but ironically resulted in the alienation of Indians and an increase of American land sold to them or taken if unoccupied. The allotment to Indians followed the following terms: a head of a family gets one fourth of a section of land, a single person over eighteen gets one eighth of land as well as anyone under the age of 18, and lastly anyone born after the Dawes policy was initiated gained one sixteenth of land. 

The government had a protective trust over the land for 25 years, until the Indian could eligibly be recognized an American citizen where he could cultivate, sell, and do as he wished with his allotted land. (Fowler, 89) Land that was not allotted, which included land abandoned or leftover from other Indian tribes was given to the government who sold surplus land to homesteaders. (Lazarus, 108)

White settlers ventured to the western frontier in search for land,

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