The United States government has a long history of moving Native Americans from their land and manipulating them into treaties that ultimately did not benefit Native Americans in any way. Additionally, there were a lot of efforts made to register Native Americans in an official registry to keep track of populations and people as well as assimilate them more into American society. The Dawes Act of 1997 was an act put into place to do both of these functions. While claiming to protect Native American property during the Oklahoma land rush, it broke up lands and further worked to erase Native American culture. The reasoning behind breaking up the lands was not just to "protect Native American land" but also worked as a way to hopefully assimilate Native Americans into American society. It was reasoned that if they had the responsibilities of their own farm, they would gradually forget their culture and become the typical American farmer. It split up Native American reservation land to become individual property while also requiring Native Americans to register themselves under “anglicized” names in order to get this land. If they didn't register in the registry, they were not eligible for the land and were not recognized by the US government. Those who did accept allotments had to live separately from their tribes and were granted US citizenship.
It is important to note that while the intentions are already questionable, much of the land given to Native Americans who did register were unsuitable for farming. In addition to being unfamiliar with the traditional American way of farming, Native Americans had to fund their own farms by buying supplies, seeds, and animals which proved to be very difficult for people to afford. Additionally when land was inherited down generations, children who were given the land were unable to claim it because they were at boarding school so ultimately the land was reclaimed by the US government.
