Reformers hoped the Dawes Act would encourage assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream U.S. society by dissolving tribal unity and culture, allotting individual plots of land for farming, and integrating them into American culture
. The Dawes Act sought to accomplish this in a number of ways:
- Individual Land Ownership The Act aimed to grant individual Native Americans land allotments from reservation lands, intending to transform them into independent farmers akin to white homesteaders
- Dissolving Tribal Structures Reformers believed that by dividing communal tribal lands into individual plots, the social cohesion of tribes would be broken down, thus facilitating assimilation
- Cultural Transformation The Act included measures to suppress Indigenous cultural practices and promote European American norms, including mandatory attendance at Indian Service schools where children were taught English and American customs
- Citizenship Native Americans who accepted the land allotments were offered U.S. citizenship, with the expectation that they would adopt American values and shed their traditional ways of life
- Economic Integration By encouraging farming and ranching, reformers hoped to integrate Native Americans into the American economy, making them self-sufficient and less reliant on government assistance
