• late 1870s the reservations received increasing support
  • the Department of the Interior Gen. land office decided that the only good land was on Indian reservations
  • allotment the Indian bureaucracy came to accept it as desirable because with a smaller area to Rule over Indians would be more manageable
  • if Indians keep living together that the whites thought they would keep their old ways and if they have their own land they could have real progress
  • the Coke bill Sen. Richard Coke Texas provided for division of reservations in 260 acre homestead allotments the title to be held in trust by the federal government for 25 years
  • allotment needed two thirds of the adult male tried to vote approval
  • Dawes Bill late 1880s it became the Gen. allotment act and made allotment of reservation mandatory at the discretion of the president
  • tribal spokesman didn’t like the allotment proposals they were outraged by the Dawes Bill
  • Sioux Indians including sitting bull protested the Dawes proposal and urged resistance to the allotment
  • the five civilized Tribes maintain permanent delegations in Washington to lobby bills not in the tribes interest
  • tribes protested allotment and reservations started arresting people that left the reservation
  • the creeks had a pan Indian Council attended by 57 representatives from 19 tribes they decided the government were treating them like poo they had rights and they adopted a resolution urging the president to stop enforcement of the General allotment act
  • Native Americans were joined by non-Indians who opposed the allotment act including Lewis Henry Morgan, James Mooney and other pioneers who objected to what was happening to the Indians the Bureau of Indian affairs and Congress ignored expert guidance
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  • the experts on Native Americans were excluded by Congress to speak they were called impractical dreamers
  • John Powell was the director of the Bureau of American ethnology he was in favor of allotment
  • Grover Cleveland the President of the United States said that allotment was just another way for settlers to obtain Indian land
  • if this were done in the name of greed it would be bad enough but to do it in the name of humanity under the cloak of a desire to promote Indian welfare by making him like the white man whether he likes it or not is force
  • the Gen. allotment act approved in 1887 said the president could direct a survey of each reservation prepare tribal roles of every member’s name and assign a allotment of 160 acres to each family had 80 acres to a single person over 18 and orphans under 18 and 40 acres to each other single persons under 18
  • they were expected to select their homesteads but if they didn’t the government would select him for them
  • the federal government held them for 25 years their tax-exempt for the period of the trust
  • the law also gave citizen ship to each allotted person
  • the exempted tribes from allotment were the five civilized Tribes, the Osages, Seneca, Miami, Peoria, Fox tribes
  • Congress made many changes to the Gen. allotment act including they equalized allotment on the basis of its earning capacity so instead of allotment set hundred 60 acres agricultural allotments of 80 acres and grazing homesteads of 160 acres and a varied was tribes
  • although different tribes got different allotments and there was a lot of discrimination and it was punitive people tribes that gave whites problems got worse allotments
  • one of the most important changes to the Gen. allotment act came in 1893 Congress made the five civilized Tribes and the Osages subject to allotment
  • in 1906 Congress approved the Burke act and made the secretary of the interior authority to remove restrictions on allotments
  • when Oklahoma became a state in 1907 they wanted open up more land to increase the tax base said they adopted a law which lifted respect restrictions on allotments held by thousands of mixed blood and Freeman it was called the crime of 1908 and 90% of the a lot tease disposed of a portion or all of their lands
  • three layers of jurisdiction for Native Americans tribal, state and federal
  • federal agents had a hard time preparing tribal roles, tribal roles are the list of names of all the Indians, because they found Indian names difficult to spell.
  • The Commissioner of Indian affairs issued an order directing all Indians to be renamed
  • unless they have been to school they had given a first name but no last name
  • the allotment agents recorded names of dogs and horses in the village on tribal roles as Philoctetes
  • Hamlin Garland belief that changing their names would help them get their allotments and protect the property rights