The Dawes Act of 1887
A) was intended to preserve traditional Indian culture.
B) denied U.S. citizenship to landowning Indian adults.
C) was designed to force Indians to become landowners and farmers.
D) ended the U.S. government's effort to assimilate Indian tribes.
E) reaffirmed tribal ownership of western lands in the face of white claims to it.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Dawes Act of 1887 was designed to force Native American tribes to become individual landowners and farmers, in order to assimilate them into Euro-American culture. The Act distributed land that had been held in common by tribes to individual Native Americans, and allowed the government to sell off remaining Native American land to non-Native American settlers. This led to the loss of much of the Indian land base in the United States.