feb 8, 1887 - The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

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An act that authorized the president to divide native tribal land and distribute it to individual Native Americans. What remained of the former Native American land would be auctioned off to white purchasers.

The act itself was an attack on tribalism. Its purpose was to eliminate Indian tribal culture through assimilation.

As a result, many Native American farms would fail because they had no knowledge of self-sufficient farming. Often the children of Native Americans could not inherit the land because they wouldn't know what to do with it, and they were sent to boarding schools ran by the Bureau of Indian affairs in attempt to assimilate them into American society.

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