LAD #25: Dawes Severalty Act

Read the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 - summarize

The Dawes Severalty Act was an act passed in order to allow the President of the United States to be able survey and divvy out lands in reservations, in "severalty", to any Indian located on the land. This was to be allowed whenever The President feels that a reservation was in any way more so advantageous for the success of agriculture. One quarter was to be assigned to each head of the family, each Indian older than 18, and to each orphan under the age of 18. For regular children under 18 years old, one sixteenth would be allotted. In this act, the power of re-assigning land was held by the President, so all transactions were not always final. Indians themselves could choose their land as well, and was typically done by the head of the family, although not always. This act also required special agents be hired in order to help in the land-assigning process. Additionally, this Act offered up U.S. citizenship rights, although it excluded some Indian tribes.

I decided to connect The Dawes Severalty Act to the story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie. I did this because one, we just read it in English Class so it came to mind, and two, because a lot of it is about how Indians on Reservations get discriminated against, even though there is no law restricting them. This is much like how The Dawes Severalty Act offered U.S. citizenship right to a select group of tribes, and not every Indian Tribe.