example of the lands lost due to the dawes act

The Dawes Act of 1887 was a post-Indian Wars law that illegally dissolved 90 million acres of Native lands from 1887 to 1934. Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on February 8, 1887, the Dawes Act expedited the cultural genocide of Native Americans. The negative effects of the Dawes Act on Indigenous tribes would result in the enactment of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the so-called “Indian New Deal.”

It authorized the U.S. to divide indigenous tribal land into allotments for heads of families and individuals, leading to a loss of 2/3rds of land (~100 million acres) over the next 50 years.

The law converted traditional systems of land tenure into a state-imposed system of private property by forcing Native Americans to “assume a capitalist and proprietary relationship with property” that did not previously exist in their cultures, according to historian Kent Blansett. The act declared remaining lands after allotment as “surplus” and available for sale, including to non-Natives.

Between 1887 and 1934, indigenous people lost control of about 100 million acres of land, or about two-thirds of the land base they held in 1887, as a result of the act.

The loss of land and the break-up of traditional leadership of tribes had such devastating consequences that many scholars refer to the Dawes Act as one of the most destructive U.S. policies for indigenous people in history.

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