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GCSE History · key term
The division of communally held tribal land into plots allocated to individual Native Americans, as promoted by the Dawes Act of 1887.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and OCR
Paper 1
A plot assigned to an individual or family. Under the Dawes Act, allotments replaced communal ownership of much reservation land.
Revise: Resolution of 'The Indian Problem'The Act provided allotments of 160 acres for heads of families, 80 acres for single adults and 40 acres for children. Allotments were placed under government trusteeship for 25 years. Citizenship formed part of the policy’s promise of integration into American society.
Paper 2
The division of land held collectively by an Indigenous nation into separate plots allocated to individuals or families.
Revise: Destruction of Indigenous Ways of LifeThe Dawes Act authorised the division of collectively held reservation land into individual allotments. Heads of families could receive 160 acres. Allotment was linked to US citizenship and the expectation that recipients would become settled farmers.
Paper 3
Revise: Native Americans of the PlainsThe Dawes Act of 1887, passed under President Grover Cleveland, extended assimilation policy into landownership. It allowed the federal government to divide communally held tribal land into individual allotments. The aim was to turn Native Americans into individual farmers and ranchers like white homesteaders, while weakening the bonds holding tribes together.
Explain how the Dawes Act changed landownership: communal tribal land was divided into individual allotments, while land declared ‘surplus’ was sold to non-Native settlers.
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