Indian General Allotment Act

The Dawes Act or General Allotment Act of 1887 provides both for the allotment of lands on tribal reservations to members of those tribes, and for equal protection under the laws of the United States for Native Americans both on and off those reservations. This act institutionalizes normative American society in contrast to traditional Native American societies and reifies the gendered preference of males as heads of households and as property owners.

This act describes the power granted to the president by Congress to survey and allot lands among Native Americans located on reservations. Because the act determines it to be the responsibility of tribes to pay for the surveying and resurveying of this land, the act justifies the ability of the government to hold, sell, lease, and use those lands to pay this debt. Lands are allotted in one-quarter of a section to heads of households, one-eighth of a section to either single persons older than 18 years of age or orphans younger than 18 years of age, and one-sixteenth of a section to each other single person younger than 18. The size of these sections is not described. These allotments are made to both men and women but the largest allotments are reserved for male heads of households.

Moreover, a provision is made for settlers and religious or educational groups that work to civilize the tribes. These groups may secure tracts of as much as 160 acres. The implication is that the government can, will, and should determine what is in the best interest of tribes. In contrast to the stated purpose of the act, the final sections list excluded tribes and territories— including the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Osage, Miamis, Peorias, Sacs and Poxes, Seneca, and Sioux—and predicted future removals of peoples from territories, such as the Southern Ute in southwestern Colorado.

This act also describes the paternal role that the U.S. government, acting through the secretary of the Interior and special agents appointed by the president, [Page 458]plays in the everyday life of Native Americans. The act claims to make just and equal distribution of lands to Native Americans but insinuates a need to civilize, educate, and assimilate Native populations in an effort to create new American citizens. Although equal protection under the law is granted to Native Americans, the act makes clear a preference for those who adopt habits of a “civilized” life and become citizens of the United States to be eligible for all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens.