native american in 1900

The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the 1887 General Act), passed by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal lands and distribute them among Indians. Those who accepted allowances and lived separately from the tribe would be granted US citizenship. The Dawes Act was amended in 1891, in 1898 by the Curtis Act, and again in 1906 by the Burke Act.

The law was named for its creator, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of Massachusetts. The objectives of the Dawes Act were to abolish the tribal and communal rights of Native Americans in order to stimulate their assimilation into mainstream American society, to transfer Indian-controlled land to white settlers and thus lift Native Americans out of poverty. The individual ownership of land and subsistence farming households according to the US-European model was considered an essential step. The law provided that the government would classify Indian reserve lands remaining after the allotments as "surplus" and sell these lands on the open market, allowing for purchase and colonization by non-Aboriginal Americans.

The Dawes Commission, created under an Indian Office Supply Bill in 1893, was created to try to persuade the five civilized tribes to accept allotment plans. (They had been excluded from the Dawes Act by their treaties.) This commission registered members of the five civilized tribes on what became known as Dawes Rolls.

According to the Dawes Act, at least 101,000 Amerindians already have American citizenship in 1900.

More than 300 boarding schools exist for the purpose of "civilizing" Native American children, for historians the Indian becomes a legend; for anthropologists, the Indian race will have disappeared by the middle of the 20th century.

In 1900, it is considered that the end is near for the Indian race, and yet ....