The Dawes Act
The Transfer of Reservation Lands to
White Settlers Through the Political
Process
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The Dawes Act
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1887 congress passed the General Allotment
Act (or the Dawes Act)
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Reservation land was to be allotted to Indians in the
same way federal domain was being privatized under
the Homestead Act
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authorized the division of the reservations into 160
acre allotments, and the assignment of one allotment to
each Indian family.
Would individualize Indians & create all of the good
incentives that come with private property rights (see
WSJ on Argentina families)
Would facilitate assimilation of the Indians into
American culture
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Actual Outcome of the Dawes Act

a very complicated and heavily supervised
property rights allocation emerged from the
allotment process that
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proved to be inefficient
created a situation ripe for corruption.
Inefficient because for most of the Indian
Reservations, 160 acres was not enough for a
subsistence farm
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Homesteading was used to break up federal land in the
Midwest first, where the soil is rich and there is substantial
precipitation, so 160 acres was a pretty efficient size
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Land Policies
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Allotted land was to be held in
trust for the Indians for 25 years
(couldn’t be sold be Indians)
Indians in the arid west needed
more than 160 acres.
Indians could have received
more than 160 acres but extra
land was instead given away to
white settlers.
a primary purpose of the
Allotment Act was to make it
possible for white settlers to
obtain reservation lands
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Land Rush

Arriving for the
Land Rush:
Yellowstone
Valley, Montana
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Effects of the Dawes Act
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if the objective of the allotment act was to privatize
land (or take it), then it was clearly a success.
if the objective was to increase land ownership by
individual Indians in order to encourage them to
engage in agriculture, it was a disaster.

as the 25 years for land being held in trust ended, the
land became fee simple, and the Indians could sell it to
whites, often those who had been leasing it.
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estimated 60 percent of the allotted lands ended up being
transferred to whites.
Allotment ended in 1934
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Indian Reservations, 1875
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Indian Reservations, 1890
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Indian Reservations, 1930
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Transfer of Indian Lands

In 1881 there were 155,632,312 acres
allocated to tribes and to individual Indians on
reservations
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1890 the total was down to 104,314,349
by 1933 it reached 69,588,421
in 1962 there were 50,557,234,
2/3rds of reservation land taken from Indians
from 155 million down to 50 million
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