The Dawes Act

Learn about the Dawes Act and its impact on Native Americans.

The Dawes Act (read and listen to) the text below! How did Americans settlers view Native Americans in the 1800s? What did American settlers want to take from the Native Americans? What was the goal of the Dawes Act? What did the US Government do to Native American lands under the Dawes Act? Who did land redistribution benefit under the Dawes Act? How did land redistribution impact the traditions/ culture of Native Americans? The passage of the Dawes Act in 1887 was primarily an attempt by the United States government to limit the power of the Bureau of Indian Affairs return eastern land to Native American Indian tribes encourage Native American Indians to give up their traditional cultures hire Native American Indians as military Scouts In the late 1800’s, the goal of the Federal Government’s policy toward Native American Indians was to destroy tribal bonds and thus weaken their traditional cultural values grant them full citizenship and due process give their tribal groups authority over their own affairs increase the land holdings of western tribes Picture Comparison Activity Click on each of the blue tags on the slide. Then type in 1 thing you observe (see) in each picture. Finally click on the bottom blue tag and give one inference (educated guess) about what you think is happening in the pictures. (IDK or blank will result in 0 points). Clip from Into the West Watch the video clip and then answer the questions that follow. Explain 2 ways the video clip shows the assimilation of Native Americans. After learning about the Dawes Act, who do you think this law was intended to help ?Use one piece of evidence from the reading to back up your claim.