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Question: Did the Dawe's Act mandate that after 25 years of farming Indians would gain citizenship!?
If that information above is wrong, I'd like to know the process of how the Indians attained citizenship!.!.!. I'm having trouble dissecting the section in my book about it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Under the Dawes Act, Indian tribes lost legal standing, and tribal lands were divided among the individual members!. In exchange for renouncing their tribal holdings, Indians would become American citizens and would receive individual land grants--160 acres to family heads, 80 acres to single adults!. Even these grants were qualified, however; full ownership would come only after the expiration of a twenty-five-year federal trust!. (In 1906, the Burke Act waived the remaining trust for all Indians judged competent to handle their property independently!.)

The Dawes Act significantly undermined Indian tribal life, but did little to further their acceptance into the broader society!. In addition, the law severely reduced Indian holdings; after all individual allocations had been made, the extensive lands remaining were declared surplus and opened for sale to non-Indians!. In 1887, the tribes had owned about 138 million acres; by 1900 the total acreage in Indian hands had fallen to 78 million!. This policy was not reversed until 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act asserted the importance of perpetuating Indian cultural institutions and permitted surplus lands to be returned to tribal ownership!.
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