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Allotment
Congress passed the General Allotment Act of 1887, about the
time the tribes moved out of Like-a-Fishhook Village.
This Act was to put an end to the Indians' tribal rights to
reservation land and make them individual land owners.
It was also a well orchestrated and thought out scheme to separate
the Indians from their lands. Any un-allotted Indian land
could then be deemed government surplus, and dealt with however
the government saw fit. It was given over for homesteads
of settlers.
The Executive Order of 1891 provided for the allotment of the
Fort Berthold Reservation. This order restricted the sale
of un-allotted lands and reserved them for future members of
the tribe. The reservation was to be divided into standardized
plots-heads of families received 160 acres each, women and men
over the age of 18 who were not heads of families were allotted
80 acres each, children received 40 acres each. The actual
allotment of reservation land began in 1894. The General Allotment
or Dawes Act of February 8, 1887, is an example of a change
in the Governments ' policy towards Indian leadership that encouraged
Government officials to deal with individuals or families, to
bypass tribal leaders, and to ignore tribal governing structures.
Had the Act been successful, the allotment policy would have
brought an end to the reservation system. When people moved
onto individual allotments, they were each given one of the
following: a cook-stove, a yoke of work oxen, a breaking
plow, a stirring plow, a cow, a wagon, an ax, a hoe, a spade,
a hand rake, a scythe, and a pitch fork. They were expected
to build a frame or log house on their allotment. All
adult males were to work to support themselves, and children
between eight and eighteen were to attend school. Farming
on the bench lands did not go well those early years because
of the lack of rain and poor soil.
The agency recommended cattle, sheep, and swine be added to
supplement grain crops. This policy and practice contradicted
Indian beliefs and practices. The Indians traditionally
thought of land in terms of communal use and never as individually
owned. Individual ownership made it easier for white people
to purchase Indian lands. Millions of acres were lost
as a result of this Act. The Dawes Act granted to individual
Indians selected rights and privileges, but included constricting
regulations, bringing then under control and watchful eye of
the government. The goal of allotment was to replace tribal
culture with the white man's culture. On December 14,
1886, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Sahnish signed away 1,600,000
acres of Fort Berthold land and the reservation was opened to
white settlement. By 1891, through successive executive orders,
epidemics, Indian agents, and allotments, the Mandan, Hidatsa
and Arikara (Sahnish) were stripped of their property and disorganized
as a group. Expected to assume a philosophy of individualism,
they were, as individuals, pushed to lower and lower social
and economic levels. (Dunn, 1963)
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Phone: 701-627-3503
Three Affiliated Tribes, 404 Frontage Road, New Town, North Dakota,
58763
Copyright ® 2004-2006 Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation.
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