The Dawes Act was when the federal government took Native American that was before held communally (aka owned by the community as a whole) and turned it into smaller units. These units would be owned by individual families. From there, these families would be expected to take up standard agricultural practices used by white farmers in order to make a living. This change caused Native Americans in this area to abandon the idea of communally own land in order to align their values with the American concept of private ownership of land.
