Issues

As European settlers moved westward, Native nations ceded vast territories to the United States government in exchange for guarantees of much smaller but secure reservations. Unfortunately, the federal government very quickly reneged on its obligations. Beginning in the 1880s, the U.S. enacted legislation that resulted in Native Americans losing ownership and control of two thirds of their reservation lands. The loss totaled 90 million acres – about the size of Montana. The results have been devastating, as generations of Native Americans have been robbed of their economic, cultural and human potential.

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History

Key factors that have shaped U.S. Indian policy and have led to the fractured state of Indian land tenure in Indian Country today include countless federal laws and legislative acts. Perhaps the single most devastating federal policy was the General Allotment Act of 1887, also called the Dawes Act after Senator Henry Dawes, the Act’s lead proponent.

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