Dawes General Allotment Act

US federal act passed 8 February 1887 providing 65 hectares of allotment land to American Indian families living on reservations, and extending the protection of US laws to them. The aim of the act was to encourage American Indians to take up agriculture and adopt ‘the habits of civilized life’ and ultimately for them to be fully assimilated into US society. With the grant of land they also received US citizenship.

Population pressures, and the outbreak of numerous skirmishes after the US Civil War, raised questions about the reservation of large tracts of land for the exclusive use of American Indians. Many settlers believed that the best solution to the ‘Indian question’ was to remove them from all lands. The Dawes Act broke up reservations by allotting fixed acreages to individual American Indians. The American Indian ethnic groups lost about 50% of their land, which was subsequently sold to non-American Indians for homesteading.