The Assault on Indian Tribalism

Book excerpt: The General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Severalty Act, became law in 1887. It was the culmination of a decade of intense concern on the part of an increasingly dominant white majority over the future status of the increasingly helpless Indian minority within the United States. The act did not simply rearrange the landholding system of the Indians. It dealt, sometimes only in a tentative or partial way, with all aspects of the relationship between white men and red: it determined how much land the red man would retain and how much the white man would acquire; it determined whether past treaties would be honored or violated; it determined how much authority the tribe would retain and how much the Indian individual would acquire; it determined what type of law the Indian would be subjected to; and it determined whether or not he would become an American citizen or remain an alien in his own country. The act did not determine all these questions fully and finally; but it did confront them directly, even if it answered them only partially. This volume treats the various-alternatives faced by legislators on the road to the compromise legislation that finally emerged.