Dawes+Act

1887, Congress passed the **Dawes Act** aiming to "Americanize" the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans--I60 acres to each head of household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult. The government would sell the remainder of the reservations to settlers, and the resulting income would be used by Native Americans to buy farm implements. By 1932, whites had taken about two-thirds of the territory that had been set-aside for Native Americans. In the end, the Native Americans received no money from the sale of these lands.