 |
EncyclopediaDawes ActDawes Act or General Allotment Act,1887, passed by the U.S. Congress to provide for the granting of landholdings (allotments, usually 160 acres/65 hectares) to individual Native Americans, replacing communal tribal holdings. Sponsored by U.S. Senator H. L. Dawes, the aim of the act was to absorb tribe members into the larger national society. Allotments could be sold after a statutory period (25 years), and “surplus” land not allotted was opened to settlers. Within decades following the passage of the act the vast majority of what had been tribal land in the West was in white hands. The act also established a trust fund to collect and distribute proceeds from oil, mineral, timber, and grazing leases on Native American lands. The failure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to manage this trust fund properly led to legislation and lawsuits in the 1990s and early 2000s to force the government to properly account for the revenues collected. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. More on Dawes Act from Infoplease:
- Dawes Commission - Dawes Commission Dawes Commission, commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, created by the U.S. ...
- Henry Laurens Dawes - Dawes, Henry Laurens Dawes, Henry Laurens, 1816–1903, U.S. Senator (1875–93), b. ...
- American Indian Glossary - Glossary of terms
- North American Natives - Natives, North American Natives, North American, peoples who occupied North America before the ...
- Bureau of Indian Affairs - Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of, created (1824) in the U.S. War Dept. and ...
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History
|
|
