Excerpts from the Digital Text at the Our Documents.
This law divided the land on Indian reservations into parcels to be owned individually as private property ("in severalty"). Quarter-section allotments were 160 acres. Henry L. Dawes, the author of the act, intended it to benefit Native Americans, but in practice its effect was to reduce dramatically the amount of land that Indians controlled -- through fraudulent land deals and later amendments.
An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes.
. . . In all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or executive order setting apart the same for their use, the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized, whenever in his opinion any reservation or any part thereof of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes, to cause said reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resurveyed if necessary, and to allot the lands in said reservation in severalty to any Indian located thereon in quantities as follows:
Provided:
Section 2
That all allotments set apart under the provisions of this act shall be
selected by the Indians, heads of families selecting for their minor
children, and the agents shall select for each orphan child, and in such
manner as to embrace the improvements of the Indians making the selection.
where the improvements of two or more Indians have been made on the same
legal subdivision of land, unless they shall otherwise agree, a
provisional line may be run dividing said lands between them, and the
amount to which each is entitled shall be equalized in the assignment of
the remainder of the land to which they are entitled under his act:
Provided, That if any one entitled to an allotment shall fail to make a
selection within four years after the President shall direct that
allotments may be made on a particular reservation, the Secretary of the
Interior may direct the agent of such tribe or band, if such there be, and
if there be no agent, then a special agent appointed for that purpose, to
make a selection for such Indian, which selection shall be allotted as in
cases where selections are made by the Indians, and patents shall issue in
like manner.
Section 5
. . . 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, or, in case of his
decease, of his heirs according to the laws of the State or Territory
where such land is located. . . . And if any conveyance shall be made of
the lands set apart and allotted as herein provided, or any contract made
touching the same, before the expiration of the time above mentioned, such
conveyance or contract shall be absolutely null and void.
. . . 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 said tribe, it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with such Indian tribe for the purchase and release by said tribe, in conformity with the treaty or statute 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. . . .
Section 6
That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting of the lands
to said allottees, each and every member of the respective bands or tribes
of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall have the benefit of and
be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory
in which they may reside; and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law
denying any such Indian within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the law. And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United
States to whom allotments shall have been made under the provisions of
this act, or under 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, whether said Indian
has been or not, by birth or otherwise, a member of any tribe of Indians
within the territorial limits of the United States without in any manner
affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property.