The impact of US assimilation and allotment policy on American Indian mortality.

ABSTRACT: In contrast to earlier US policies of open war, forcible removal, and relocation to address the "Indian Problem," the Dawes Act of 1887 focused on assimilation and land severalty-making American Indians citizens of the United States with individually titled plots of land rather than members of collective tribes with communal land. Considerable scholarship shows that the consequences of the policy differed substantially from its stated goals, and by the time of its repeal in 1934, American Indians had lost two-thirds of all native land held in 1887 (86 million acres)-and nearly two-thirds of American Indians had become landless or unable to meet subsistence needs. Complementing rich qualitative history, this paper provides quantitative evidence on the demographic impact of the Dawes Act on

SUBMITTER: Miller G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12280973 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature