Dawes Act

The Dawes Act was a law made by the United States government a long time ago. The government wanted to take land that belonged to Native American tribes and give it to individual Native Americans. The government thought this would help Native Americans become more like white people and be part of United States society.

So the government did some things to make this happen. First, they broke up the big tribes into smaller groups called reservations. Then they gave a piece of land to each individual person and told the person they could own it forever, just like white people.

But there were some problems with this plan. A lot of Native Americans didn't want to live like white people. They wanted to keep their own traditions and way of life. Also, the land they were given was often not good for farming or living on. And even worse, some white people took advantage of the situation and bought up the land from Native Americans for very cheap prices, which was not fair.

Overall, the Dawes Act had some good intentions, but it ended up causing more harm for Native Americans in the long run.