The General Allotment (Dawes) Act of 1887 represented a basic change in the relationship between the United States and Indian tribes. The intent of Congress in passing the Act is clear from the following excerpts (emphasis and clarifying comments have been added):
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for their use, . . . to allot the lands of said reservation in severalty to any Indian located thereon. . . . [The word "allot" means to "give" and the word "severalty" means "an individuals right to own land that is not shared with any other person." Thus reservation lands were to given (allotted) to individual Indians.] That all allotments set apart under provisions of this act shall be selected by the Indians, . . . That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in this act by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause patents to issue therefore in the name of the allottees, which patents shall be of the legal effect, and declare that the United States does and will hold the land thus allotted, for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, . . . and that at expiration of said period the United States will convey the same patent to said Indian, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge or encumbrance whatsoever, Provided, That the President of the United States may in any case in his discretion extend the period. . . . [A patent in fee or fee simple is a common land deed identical to everyone else's land deeds]. . . . That at any time after lands have been allotted to all the Indians of any tribe as herein provided, or sooner if in the opinion of the President it shall be for the best interests of the said tribe, it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with such tribe for the purchase and release by said tribe, in conformity with the treaty or statue under which such reservation is held, of such portions of its reservation not allotted as such tribe shall, from time to time, consent to sell, on such terms and conditions as shall be considered just and equitable between the United States and said tribe of Indians, which purchase shall not be complete until ratified by Congress, . . . And the sums agreed to be paid by the United States as purchase money for any portion of any such reservation shall be held in the Treasury of the United States for the sole use of the tribe or tribes of Indians; to whom such reservation belonged; . . ."
Twenty years later, in 1907, Section 6 of the Dawes Act was amended by the Burke Act as follows:
"That at the expiration of the trust period and when the lands have been conveyed to the Indians by patent in fee, as provided in section five of this Act, then each and every allottee shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they reside; . . . And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall have been made and who has received a patent in fee simple under the provisions of this Act, or any law or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has voluntarily taken up within said limits his residence, separate and apart from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, . . . That the Secretary of the Interior may at his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, whenever he shall be satisfied that any Indian allottee is competent and capable of managing his or her own affairs at any time to cause to be issued to such allottee a patent in fee simple, and thereafter all restrictions as to sale, encumbrance, or taxation of said land shall be removed. . . . That until the issuance of fee-simple patents all allottees to whom trust patents shall hereafter be issued shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States."