Okla-homey
2/8/2007, 07:29 AM
Feb 8, 1887: Pres. Grover Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/11021/2001860010725613687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001860010725613687)
Big Grover
120 years ago, in a well-meaning but ultimately seriously flawed attempt to assimilate American Indians, President Grover Cleveland signs an act to end tribal control of reservations and divide their land into individual holdings.
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/8969/2001868748909692858_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001868748909692858)
Henry Dawes
Named for its chief author, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes from Massachusetts, the Dawes Severalty Act reversed the long-standing American policy of allowing Indian tribes to maintain their traditional practice of communal use and control of their lands.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3382/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz32.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A new federal agency was created to execute and administer the Dawes process.
Instead, the Dawes Act gave the president the power to divide Indian reservations into individual, privately owned plots. The act dictated that men with families would receive 160 acres, single adult men were given 80 acres, and boys received 40 acres. Women received no land.
The most important motivation for the Dawes Act was white hunger for Indian lands. The act provided that after the government had doled out land allotments to the Indians, the sizeable remainder of the reservation properties would be opened for sale to whites. Consequently, Indians eventually lost 86 million acres of land, or 62 percent of their total pre-1887 holdings.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/922/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz33.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The result of tribes' agreeing to the terms of the Dawes Severalty Act.
Still, the Dawes Act was not solely a product of greed. Many religious and humanitarian "friends of the Indian" supported the act as a necessary step toward fully assimilating the Indians into American culture. Reformers believed that Indians would never bridge the chasm between "barbarism and civilization" if they maintained their tribal cohesion and traditional ways. J.D.C. Atkins, commissioner of Indian affairs, argued that the Dawes Act was the first step toward transforming, "Idleness, improvidence, ignorance, and superstition.... into industry, thrift, intelligence, and Christianity."
The theory depended on the notion that of given their own land, individual Indians would take up farming and ranching...notwithstanding the fact the vast majority of them hadn't a clue on how to make either of these pursuits pay and lacking any start-up capital to invest in the things they needed to set up a farm or ranch.
In reality, the Dawes Severalty Act proved a very effective tool for taking lands from Indians and giving it to whites, but the promised benefits to the Indians never materialized. Racism, bureaucratic bungling, and inherent weaknesses in the law deprived the Indians of the strengths of tribal ownership, while severely limiting the economic viability of individual ownership.
Consider this, if you were an Indian living in one of the big square western states, and you and your family were assigned 160 acres, what exactly would you do to support your family with it? Farm? In Arizona, NM or the Dakotas? In reality, far too many simply leased their allotted land for ridiculously low prices to big time ranchers and tried to make it through the year until the next pitiably low lease payment was paid. Many tribes also deeply resented and resisted the government's heavy-handed attempt to destroy their traditional cultures.
Despite these flaws, the Dawes Severalty Act remained in force for more than four decades. In 1934, the Wheeler-Howard Act repudiated the policy and attempted to revive the centrality of tribal control and cultural autonomy on the reservations. The Wheeler-Howard Act ended further transfer of Indian lands to whites and provided for a return to voluntary communal Indian ownership, but considerable damage had already been done.
Things worked differently here. How the Dawes Act applied in Oklahoma
In order to understand the impact of the Dawes Act here, you need to understand it was essential that the Five Tribes agree to the terms of the Dawes Act. See, Most US Indian tribes were forced to abide by the Dawes Severalty Act regardless of their wishes. However, a treaty from 1830 promised the Five Civilized Tribes living in Oklahoma Indian Territory their land for "as long as the grass grows and water runs," and the Dawes Act did not apply to them.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8107/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.jpg)
Former exclusively Choctaw lands
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8055/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz27.th.jpg
Former exclusive Chickasaw land assigns
Instead, the Dawes Commission was formed to convince them to adopt its principles voluntarily. On April 29, 1897, the first two tribes (Chickasaws and Choctaws) in Indian Territory became convinced and signed up to the act's provisions.
Don't misunderstand, although they were'nt required to sign, the Chickasaws and Choctaws were pressured to sign. What follows is a little more on that.
At the same time, Congress also threatened to make it harder for the Five Civilized Tribes to maintain their traditional ways of life. The Curtis Act, for example, invalidated the authority of all tribal courts. Recognizing that they had little hope of maintaining their old ways, in 1897, the Choctaws and Chickasaws became the first to agree voluntarily to abandon tribal government and land ownership. By 1902, the other three tribes-the Cherokees, Seminoles, and Muscogee (Creeks)-had reluctantly followed suit.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/8872/2001810378204924702_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001810378204924702)
In the interest of full disclosure, your correspondent's ancestors benefitted from this massive land grab. I'm a fifth generation Okie. This is a family photo of G-G-Grandfather Jim Lester and G-G-grandmother Annie on his 80 acre homestead in Okfuskee County, Indian Territory c.1904. This was former Muscogee (Creek) Nation land puchased by GGGrampaw when the land went up for sale being declared "excess" and unalloted to any Indian family. The annoyed little girl in his lap is my G-Grandmother. Jim was 37 and Annie was 24 when they married. She died shortly after this photo was taken leaving Jim to raise these children and run the farm alone. The little boy Steven grew up, went to college and became a school teacher and basketball coach at Pharoah OK but was killed in WWII when his troopship was sunk in the English Channel on Christmas Eve 1944 as his division was being rushed to the continent from England to reinforce US forces battling it out during the Battle of the Bulge. He left a wife and two daughters. His remains were never recovered of course, but he has a headstone in a little cemetery in Welty OK.
Despite the sincere humanitarian goals of the Dawes Act and Commission, the ultimate effect was to deprive Indians of most of their landholdings. Fraud was rampant, and some Indians either did not know they needed to apply for their private acreage or refused to do so in protest.
From 1887 to 1934, Indian landholdings declined from 138 million to 47 million acres. Since the Dawes Act was rescinded in 1934, however, tribal ownership and government have again become legal -- which, BTW made it possible to open casinos someday :D .
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9news3si.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img242.echo.cx/img242/936/naland5hm.jpg
Indian lands in 1880 and 1990 graphically displaying the effect of the Dawes Severalty Act.
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/11021/2001860010725613687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001860010725613687)
Big Grover
120 years ago, in a well-meaning but ultimately seriously flawed attempt to assimilate American Indians, President Grover Cleveland signs an act to end tribal control of reservations and divide their land into individual holdings.
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/8969/2001868748909692858_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001868748909692858)
Henry Dawes
Named for its chief author, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes from Massachusetts, the Dawes Severalty Act reversed the long-standing American policy of allowing Indian tribes to maintain their traditional practice of communal use and control of their lands.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3382/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz32.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A new federal agency was created to execute and administer the Dawes process.
Instead, the Dawes Act gave the president the power to divide Indian reservations into individual, privately owned plots. The act dictated that men with families would receive 160 acres, single adult men were given 80 acres, and boys received 40 acres. Women received no land.
The most important motivation for the Dawes Act was white hunger for Indian lands. The act provided that after the government had doled out land allotments to the Indians, the sizeable remainder of the reservation properties would be opened for sale to whites. Consequently, Indians eventually lost 86 million acres of land, or 62 percent of their total pre-1887 holdings.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/922/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz33.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The result of tribes' agreeing to the terms of the Dawes Severalty Act.
Still, the Dawes Act was not solely a product of greed. Many religious and humanitarian "friends of the Indian" supported the act as a necessary step toward fully assimilating the Indians into American culture. Reformers believed that Indians would never bridge the chasm between "barbarism and civilization" if they maintained their tribal cohesion and traditional ways. J.D.C. Atkins, commissioner of Indian affairs, argued that the Dawes Act was the first step toward transforming, "Idleness, improvidence, ignorance, and superstition.... into industry, thrift, intelligence, and Christianity."
The theory depended on the notion that of given their own land, individual Indians would take up farming and ranching...notwithstanding the fact the vast majority of them hadn't a clue on how to make either of these pursuits pay and lacking any start-up capital to invest in the things they needed to set up a farm or ranch.
In reality, the Dawes Severalty Act proved a very effective tool for taking lands from Indians and giving it to whites, but the promised benefits to the Indians never materialized. Racism, bureaucratic bungling, and inherent weaknesses in the law deprived the Indians of the strengths of tribal ownership, while severely limiting the economic viability of individual ownership.
Consider this, if you were an Indian living in one of the big square western states, and you and your family were assigned 160 acres, what exactly would you do to support your family with it? Farm? In Arizona, NM or the Dakotas? In reality, far too many simply leased their allotted land for ridiculously low prices to big time ranchers and tried to make it through the year until the next pitiably low lease payment was paid. Many tribes also deeply resented and resisted the government's heavy-handed attempt to destroy their traditional cultures.
Despite these flaws, the Dawes Severalty Act remained in force for more than four decades. In 1934, the Wheeler-Howard Act repudiated the policy and attempted to revive the centrality of tribal control and cultural autonomy on the reservations. The Wheeler-Howard Act ended further transfer of Indian lands to whites and provided for a return to voluntary communal Indian ownership, but considerable damage had already been done.
Things worked differently here. How the Dawes Act applied in Oklahoma
In order to understand the impact of the Dawes Act here, you need to understand it was essential that the Five Tribes agree to the terms of the Dawes Act. See, Most US Indian tribes were forced to abide by the Dawes Severalty Act regardless of their wishes. However, a treaty from 1830 promised the Five Civilized Tribes living in Oklahoma Indian Territory their land for "as long as the grass grows and water runs," and the Dawes Act did not apply to them.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8107/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.jpg)
Former exclusively Choctaw lands
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8055/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz27.th.jpg
Former exclusive Chickasaw land assigns
Instead, the Dawes Commission was formed to convince them to adopt its principles voluntarily. On April 29, 1897, the first two tribes (Chickasaws and Choctaws) in Indian Territory became convinced and signed up to the act's provisions.
Don't misunderstand, although they were'nt required to sign, the Chickasaws and Choctaws were pressured to sign. What follows is a little more on that.
At the same time, Congress also threatened to make it harder for the Five Civilized Tribes to maintain their traditional ways of life. The Curtis Act, for example, invalidated the authority of all tribal courts. Recognizing that they had little hope of maintaining their old ways, in 1897, the Choctaws and Chickasaws became the first to agree voluntarily to abandon tribal government and land ownership. By 1902, the other three tribes-the Cherokees, Seminoles, and Muscogee (Creeks)-had reluctantly followed suit.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/8872/2001810378204924702_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001810378204924702)
In the interest of full disclosure, your correspondent's ancestors benefitted from this massive land grab. I'm a fifth generation Okie. This is a family photo of G-G-Grandfather Jim Lester and G-G-grandmother Annie on his 80 acre homestead in Okfuskee County, Indian Territory c.1904. This was former Muscogee (Creek) Nation land puchased by GGGrampaw when the land went up for sale being declared "excess" and unalloted to any Indian family. The annoyed little girl in his lap is my G-Grandmother. Jim was 37 and Annie was 24 when they married. She died shortly after this photo was taken leaving Jim to raise these children and run the farm alone. The little boy Steven grew up, went to college and became a school teacher and basketball coach at Pharoah OK but was killed in WWII when his troopship was sunk in the English Channel on Christmas Eve 1944 as his division was being rushed to the continent from England to reinforce US forces battling it out during the Battle of the Bulge. He left a wife and two daughters. His remains were never recovered of course, but he has a headstone in a little cemetery in Welty OK.
Despite the sincere humanitarian goals of the Dawes Act and Commission, the ultimate effect was to deprive Indians of most of their landholdings. Fraud was rampant, and some Indians either did not know they needed to apply for their private acreage or refused to do so in protest.
From 1887 to 1934, Indian landholdings declined from 138 million to 47 million acres. Since the Dawes Act was rescinded in 1934, however, tribal ownership and government have again become legal -- which, BTW made it possible to open casinos someday :D .
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9news3si.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img242.echo.cx/img242/936/naland5hm.jpg
Indian lands in 1880 and 1990 graphically displaying the effect of the Dawes Severalty Act.
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg