Dawes Act of 1887: Blood Quantum, the Burke Act and a 505-Owner Allotment

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Signed by President Grover Cleveland in February 1887 and championed by Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, the Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act, broke communal reservation land into private allotments: 160 acres for a head of family, 80 for a single adult or orphan over 18, and 40 for anyone younger. The government held the land in trust for 25 years, picked plots for anyone who did not choose within four years, and offered citizenship to those who adopted "civilized" habits. Land left over after allotment was declared surplus and sold to settlers, railroads and corporations. Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado called the measure a pretext to despoil Native Americans of their lands.

The Dawes Commission of 1893 and the Curtis Act of 1898 extended allotment to the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory and abolished their governments and courts. Agents sorted people by blood quantum based on appearance and assimilation, giving those labeled mixed blood larger fee simple tracts in exchange for U.S. citizenship and the loss of tribal status. The Burke Act of 1906 let the Interior Secretary force fee patents on allottees deemed competent, and about 95 percent of those lands were lost, many over unpaid taxes. Native-owned land fell from 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million in 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act ended allotment.

• In 1890 Dawes remarked that he never knew a white man to get his foot on an Indian's land who ever took it off.
• Courts of Indian offenses prosecuted traditional religious practices and dances.
• Studies cited in the episode show rising child mortality and roughly a 20 percent drop in life expectancy.
• One 40-acre tract had 505 owners and a common denominator above 220 trillion, earning about $2,000 a year while costing about $42,000 to administer.
• The Cobell lawsuit over mismanaged trust accounts was settled in 2009 for $3.4 billion.