Introduction
I am currently enrolled as a member of The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and chose this essay topic to further explore my family’s background. My great-great grandma, Ora Marguerite McLellan, was born on December 27, 1904, and is listed on the Final Dawes Roll as number 554. She is listed as Choctaw by blood and was added to the Dawes Rolls as a newborn. My father, who is Native American and lives in Oklahoma, doesn’t have much knowledge or insight about our family or the trials they experienced. I felt compelled to discover more about my ancestors by completing this research paper and educating myself on Native American history.
The Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 shaped the Native American way of life into what it
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Women, as well as minorities including the Indians, were considered. When Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as well as other people, declared that the Native Americans were undeniably savages, they felt obligated to civilize them so they could receive all that this new nation had to offer. To ensure that the civility and peace remained in place between the Indians and the white Americans, the Constitution made it so that only the federal government was able to make any treaties or negotiations with Native American tribes. In favor of the Indian tribes, Congress declared that there would be no collecting or trespassing on any Indian land unless there was a war that Congress had previously approved. This excluded any war or act of violence that a settler or a group of settlers had organized themselves. When white Americans started to expand farther West, they would inevitably encounter Native American land and become increasingly aggravated and disappointed when they were unable to settle that piece of land. Because of this, the Indians became subject to significantly more lawful wars, as defined by Congress, when they continued to resist the Western expansion settlers. The Native Americans weren’t always defeated, which was frightening to some whites who realized that if the Native Americans wanted to rebel against the white American settlers, they might have the numbers to fight back, pushing settlers east, off their claimed
Theda Perdue`s Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, is a book that greatly depicts what life had been like for many Native Americans as they were under European Conquering. This book was published in 1998, Perdue was influenced by a Cherokee Stomp Dance in northeastern Oklahoma. She had admired the Cherokee society construction of gender which she used as the subject of this book. Though the title Cherokee Women infers that the book focuses on the lives of only Cherokee women, Perdue actually shines light upon the way women 's roles affected the Native cultures and Cherokee-American relations. In the book, there is a focus on the way that gender roles affected the way different tribes were run in the 1700 and 1800`s.
The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 authorized individual allotment of reservation lands to to be tribal citizens and granted citizenship to the allotte upon the termination of the trust status of the land. This created a checkerboard map where Native Americans were mixed with whites. Hence the word, "checkerboard" effect. The Act affected Natives by taking away millions of acres of their land. Furthermore, this Act is the reason why many Native land is separated into nations.
One thing must also be considered in the Allotment Act: The act looked to make Native Americans into US citizens. Reformers believed that Native Americans should adopt to the ways of white people so as a result looked to generally improve the lives of these Plains
The Dawes act of 1887 was a law that allowed distribution of Indian reservation land between tribesmen with the task of making whiteman’s image as responsible farmers. It was presented to congress several times by Sen. Henry L. Dawes from Massachusetts. On February 7, 1887 it was finally enacted under terms that the president presented. It was determined the recipients that were suitable were issued grants. The 160 acres of land was issued to head of households.
Many Americans were influenced by the Homestead Act which gave them 160 Acres of land as long as they maintained the land for 5 years. Eventually, the Native Americans no longer had somewhere to go. They decided to sign a treaty with the Americans which granted them a small reservation in which no American would cross and a promise that supplies would be sent. However, the supplies never came and Americans continued to cross into the reservation. The Native Americans wanted to fight back but they were powerless against the American’s
There were harsh conflicts between white explorers and Native Americans from the earliest starting point of European colonization of the New world, such viciousness expanded in the mid-nineteenth century as European pioneers moved ever advance west over the American mainland. Most white Americans accepted there was horrible quality of life in peace and agreement with Native Americans, the government made the reservation framework
One of the key factors that fueled the Plains Indian Wars was the issue of land. Native American tribes were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and confined to reservations through a series of treaties that were often disregarded or violated by the U.S. government. This led to tensions as tribes were displaced from their traditional hunting grounds and faced challenges in maintaining their way of life, which was closely tied to the land and its resources. Additionally, cultural differences played a significant role in the conflict. Native American tribes had their unique ways of life, customs, and spiritual beliefs, which clashed with the assimilationist policies of the U.S. government that sought to impose Western culture and values
1. How did Dawes Act effected the Native Americans? Dawes Act is the 1887 General Allotment Act. This act was to force the American Indians, who lived in communal way of life, to live Europeans style of individualism. It provided 160 acres of land for each family head and 80 acres to single persons over the age of eighteen (Reyhner and Eder,2006, p.81).
But when they got their own land, they really became “farmers” this time. In the other way, this policy directly increased the average earnings for every farmer. (Sowards)Also, this policy made farmers felt more confidence for their future life since they have their own land, they don’t need to worried about lost job based on how much they plant, instead, they can concentrate on how to plant crops more productive. Another policy made by the government that helped the progress on American farmers ' individual opportunity on land distribution was the Dawes Act in 1887. The Dawes Act is an act that the government directly took over Indians ' land and divided into allotments for the Indians.("Dawes”)
More indians tribes were destroyed during war with the whites, and since the Native Americans did not have as much technology, food, and medicine as the whites, they lost a lot of warriors. Many Native Americans would leave their tribes in search for food only to be confronted and ambushed by white soldiers. Some Native Americans chose to surrender rather than to be moved to a different location. After the Indian and American War, the General Allotment Act was passed, also known as The Dawes Act of 1887. The Dawes Act granted Native Americans land allotments.
Since the beginning of time Native Americans were never fully appreciated. Christopher Columbus voyaged to the New World and diminished what was left of the Native Americans along with their land. Tecumseh recognized the whites’ expansion westward as a threat to his people. In an effort to save Native American lands, Tecumseh ruled to organize a Native Confederacy that would fight the whites for land. When the U.S. opened up three million acres of land to whites the Native Americans could not stand by and wait to be moved or pushed further westward.
As discussed in lecture, the General Allotment Act of 1887, or the Dawes Act, was put in place in order
When the Europeans began their invasion of the Americas, the Cherokees were an agricultural people whose villages could be found throughout the American Southeast. Cherokee families were based on matrilineal clans. Matrilineal clans are extended family groups with names, tradition, and oral history. Membership in each clan is through the mother: you belong to your mother’s clan. To be without a clan was to be without human identity.
The Allotment Act The Dawes Act and its supporters sang a very similar tune to southerners who justified slavery as their patriarchal and christian duty. The Dawes Act allowed the President of the United States to survey the reservations Indians lived on and allot its land to heads of households, single persons over eighteen, and to orphans. This meant that the President went into reservations and redistributed the land, upsetting the system Native Americans had previously. Slave owners of the Antebellum South believed that the Black men and women needed to be enslaved, for they could not function without a patriarchal master. Westerners too saw the Native Americans as inferior, and felt that they had to help the tribal people be free of
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.