It was approved by Congress in 1887 and it gave the
President of the United States the authority to survey Indian lands and broke
it up into allotments for individual Indians.
Indians who would live apart from the tribe were given U.S.
citizenship. It was authored by Henry
Lawrence Dawes with the goal of assimilate the Natives to part of American
society. Excess land was put up for sale
to non-Natives after allotment. It broke
the communal property of the tribes and led to the decrease of land for
natives. Many saw this as a means to destroy the tribes and take their land for
the railroads to be constructed. Many
Indians were put on reservations after
losing their lands.
