Legalizing Swindling of Indian Land and the Aftermath: The General Allotment Act of 1887

Abstract

The General Allotment Act of 1887 was constructed as a solution to the obstacles that hindered western expansion, fabricated as a guise of bestowed benevolent opportunity for individual economic self-sufficiency steering to American assimilation, and guaranteed a path citizenship to American Indians. In veracity, this resulted in the duplicitous swindling of previously displaced Indians out of millions of acres of land in order to procure the best lands for Anglo American citizens, violating Indian rights and treaties, forcibly assimilating American Indians in an effort to annihilate their way of life, undermining tribal sovereignty in an attempt to terminate tribal life and tribal government all together, and establishing a system that deliberately sentenced American Indians to inevitable economic failure, catastrophic land forfeiture and devastating cultural loss. The aftermath of the General Allotment Act of 1887 created a convoluted and problematic relationship between the federal government and tribal governments, established a perplexing regulated authority of tribal sovereignty, reinforced a prolonged history filled with discrimination and deception for American Indians, and perpetuated the conflict over land rights and resource claims.