Question

14. (05.05 MC) Question refers to the excerpt below. "To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and To each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section."—From the Dawes Act, 1887 How did the disbursement of land through the Dawes Act differ from previous agreements between the government and American Indians? (5 points) The Dawes Act broke up lands into smaller plots for individuals, but earlier acts gave larger tracts to entire tribes. Previous acts granted land only to heads of families, but the Dawes Act also distributed lands to single people and children. The Dawes Act distributed lands previously designated as reservations, whereas earlier agreements had only included new lands. Previous lands had been distributed only through presidential order, whereas the Dawes Act was passed by Congress.

Answer 1

The correct answer is: "The Dawes Act broke up lands into smaller plots for individuals, but earlier acts gave larger tracts to entire tribes".

The Dawes Act was enacted by the US Congress in 1891. It divided tribal lands in individual allotments that would be granted individually to American Indians. The ones who got those pieces of land and accepted to live apart from the tribe, would be granted the US citizenship.

The main objective of this act was to end communal forms of ownership exercised by the tribes, that were previously allowed, and progressively assimilate the Indian population into the US society and way of life.