Dawes Act - Provisions of The Dawes Act

Provisions of The Dawes Act

The important provisions of the Dawes Act were: (1) A head of family would receive a grant of 160 acres (0.65 km2), a single person or orphan under 18 years of age would receive a grant of 80 acres (320,000 m2), and persons under the age of 18 would receive 40 acres (160,000 m2) each; (2) the allotments would be held in trust by the U.S. Government for 25 years; (3) Eligible Indians had four years to select their land; afterwards the selection would be made for them by the Secretary of the Interior.

Every member of the bands or tribes receiving a land allotment is subject to laws of the state or territory in which they reside. Every Indian who receives a land allotment "and has adopted the habits of civilized life" (lived separate and apart from the tribe) is bestowed with United States citizenship "without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property"

The Secretary of Interior could issue rules to assure equal distribution of water for irrigation among the tribes, and provided that "no other appropriation or grant of water by any riparian proprietor shall be authorized or permitted to the damage of any other riparian proprietor."

The Dawes Act did not apply to the territory of the:.

• Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Miamies and Peorias in Indian Territory
• Osage, Sacs and Foxes, in the Oklahoma Territory
• any of the reservations of the Seneca Nation of New York
• a strip of territory in the State of Nebraska adjoining the Sioux Nation

Provisions were later extended to the Wea, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankeshaw, and Western Miami tribes by act of 1889. Allotment of the lands of these tribes would subsequently be mandated by the Act of 1891 which amplified the provisions of the Dawes Act.