Native Americans

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The 1887 Dawes Severalty Act, which is also known as the General allotment Act, had a dramatic impact on the Indian Country in the context of United States colonialism. According to Kelly, L. C. (1973), the Act got its name from Massachusetts’s Senator, Henry Dawes, which authorized the allotment of such lands and the survey of American-Indians reservations to acknowledge tribal members for individual membership. As part of social movements and a broader federal to assimilate the natives national order that is domestic and to break up cultural traditions and tribal lands, the Dawes Act was designed to create and to convert lands of reservations into a private system property and to release the “surplus” lands to non-Indians for settlement. The act allowed allocations of up to one hundred and sixty acres for the head of the household, eighty acres to an orphan or a single person under the age of 18, and for each legal minor, and forty acres. Additionally, the Dawes Act specified that the government in trust for twenty-five years would hold such allotment acts, Kelly, L. C. (1973). At that, every Indian recipient with an “adopted habit of civilized life” would become a United States citizen and be granted land title. The allotment to Indian policy was amended in 1891 so as to allow Indian’s land leasing in particular circumstances, which reinforced by the 1898 Curtis Act. The Dawes Act undercut forms of cultural and community practices and finally led to a 90 million acre land loss. From allotment policy, gender, sexuality, and the management of natural resources to key shifts in the relationship between the federal Indian law and Native American sovereignty, the Dawes Act had insightful effects on the diverse native communities, even as allotment marked a an earlier continuation of US expansions through dispossession of politics. Sequentially, though the 1934 Reorganization Act of India took a hold on the allotment of Indian lands and called for increased forms of self-determination, the legacies of the Dawes Act go on to resonate for civil criminal jurisdiction, Kelly, L. C. (1973). There are debates on tribal citizenship and blood quantum that is often linked to designations of Indian identities from rolls of allotment issues, and inheritance issues such as Cobell settlements and Fractioned allotments.

In conclusion, the non-Indians and especially the white Americans and the Europeans failed consistently to acknowledge the specific identities as well as the culture of Native Americans, which has led to historical events and issues of stereotypes, myths, confusion, and misunderstanding. According to the theories of the origin of American Indians in North America, we can conclude that the original inhabitants, who are the ancestors, crossed into North America through Alaska from northeastern Asia. It can also be said that the native responses to European activities affected the direction the colonies took because of their clashes between value and cultures systems. Looking at Dawes Act, it went on to resonate for civil criminal jurisdiction. However, there are debates on tribal citizenship and blood quantum that are often linked to designations of Indian identities from rolls of allotment issues, and inheritance issues such as Cobell settlements and Fractioned allotments.

References:

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Apache Tribal Nation. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.greatdreams.com/apachje/apache_tribe.htm

Attitudes Towards Native History. Anti-Indian Ideology: European Racism. Retrieved from http://pages.interlog.com/~gilgames/atnathis.htm

Dangerous Memories and Cultural Resistance. Moral Superiority: The White Man's Burden. Retrieved from http://ww.epica.org/Library/indigenous/golden.htm

Europeans Influence Native American Culture. Retrieved from http://www.msddecatur.k12.in.us/EdVenture

Kelly, L. C. (1973). The Dawes Act and the Allotment of Indian Lands: Otis, DS (Edited by Paul Prucha): Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 206 pp., Publication Date: January 30, 1973. History: Reviews of New Books, 1(7), 157-158.

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