2/8 【历史上的今天】表面上是要帮助印第安人，实际上却掠夺了他们的土地

美国历史上的今天

道斯土地占有法

每天一篇《美国历史上的今天》，提炼和总结历史在今天发生的重要事件：谁，在哪里，什么时候，做了什么，这件事为什么重要、以及在写关于什么主题的论文的时候可以作为潜在论据引用。

每天半分钟，轻松积累史实

为AP历史拿5分打下坚实基础

When: Feb 8, 1887

What: President Grover Cleveland signed the Dawes Severalty Act into law.

Why significant: The act ended tribal control of reservations, by dividing up reservations held communally by Native American tribes into smaller units, and distributing these units to individuals native americans. It changed the legal status of Native Americans from tribal members to individuals subject to federal laws and dissolved many tribal affiliations. It later proved to be a well-meaning but ultimately flawed attempt to assimilate Native Americans, and became a huge blow to tribal sovereignty.

The major motivation for the Dawes Act was Anglo-American hunger for Indian lands. Under the Dawes Act, the head of each Native American family received 160 acres in an effort to encourage Native Americans to take up farming, live in smaller family units, and renounce tribal loyalties. The government held such lands in trust for 25 years, until the recipients could prove themselves self-sufficient farmers. Before the family could sell their allotment, they were required to get a certificate of competency. If the family did not succeed at farming, the land reverted back to the federal government for sale, usually to white settlers. The Dawes Act reduced Native American landholdings from 138 million acres in 1887 to 78 million in 1900, and continued the trend of white settlement on previously Native American-held land.

To be fair, the Dawes Act was not solely a product of greed. Many religious and humanitarian “friends of the Indian” supported the act as a necessary step toward fully assimilating the Indians into white American culture. Reformers believed that Indians would never bridge the chasm between “barbarism and civilization” if they maintained their tribal cohesion and traditional ways. So the act also created federally funded boarding schools designed to assimilate Native American children into white society. However, those boarding schools became notorious as they practically destroyed family and cultural ties, for children were punished for speaking their native language or performing native rituals.

The Dawes Severalty Act proved a very effective tool for taking lands from Indians and giving it to Anglos, but the promised benefits to the Indians never materialized. Racism, bureaucratic bungling, and inherent weaknesses in the law deprived the Indians of the strengths of tribal ownership, while severely limiting the economic viability of individual ownership. Many tribes also deeply resented and resisted the government’s heavy-handed attempt to destroy their traditional cultures.

Despite the flaws, the Dawes Severalty Act remained in force for more than four decades. It was repudiated in 1934, during President Franklin Roosevelt’s first term.

Tags: native Americans, President Grover Cleveland, Dawes Severalty Act