3.3 Changing Government attitudes to Plains Indians

Question 1

What were the aims of the Dawes Act 1887? (6)

Answer 1

• break up the power of the tribe and tribal chiefs, and encourage individualism
• encourage Indian families to farm for themselves, not rely on the tribe
• encourage Indians to assimilate and become US citizens
• reduce the influence of chiefs and tribal council
• reduce the cost to the federal government of running the reservation system
• free up more land for settlers

Question 2

When did the US census office declare that the Frontier was closed?

Answer 2

1890

Question 3

What were government attitudes to Native Americans

Answer 3

• Indians should assimilate into white America by becoming farmers, Christians and settle in one place
• there were pressures from whites who thought Indians were being given too much help and wanted Indian land for minerals, for farming
• Indians should be protected from whites by protecting land, signing treaties and through government support
• Indian wars proved Plains Indians were too dangerous: a threat that must be eliminated : “the only good Indian is a dead one”
• reducing food rations was a way of controlling Plains Indians
• corrupt American Indians were replaced by Christian missionaries to convert Plains Indians

Question 4

What did the closure of the Indian frontier mean?

Answer 4

that the USA had complete control of the West

Question 5

What did the Indian Appropriations act of 1871 do?

Answer 5

marked the end of Indians being treated as independent sovereign nations .

Native Americans were stripped of their power and their strength because from that point on they were considered only as individuals.

Question 6

When was the Dawes act?

Answer 6

1887

Question 7

What was the Dawes Act?

* features of the act

Answer 7

• each Indian family was allocated a 160-acre share of reservation land
• 80 acres were allotted to single Indians
• 40 acres to orphans under 18
• Indians who took their allotment and left reservation could then become American citizens
• could not sell their land allotments for 25 years

Question 8

What was the significance of the Dawes Act?

Answer 8

• By 1890, Indians had lost half the lands they had had in 1887 to whites
• those that took up allotments were not able to farm successfully: the land was too poor and they didn’t have enough land for the dry conditions
• White Americans cheated many Indians into selling their land
• Most Indians sold their land as soon as they could and ended up landless