On February 8, 1997, Congress passed the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act allowed the president to break up the Indian reservations into plots of land. The government then handed out the separate plots of land to the men of the Indian tribes. The white men figured that if the Indians changed their clothing and ways of life they would not have to worry about taking care of the Indians or their reservations anymore. The Dawes Act was meant to help the Indians, but it did the exact opposite. Most of the Native Americans did not want to take up farming and agriculture, but they had no choice. Once the government gave them a plot of land, they were basically left to fend for themselves. The Sioux Indians had freedom of religion taken away from them. The Bill of Rights gives freedom of religion to all citizens, but they were not able to keep their religion. It was the Sioux's tradition to have one chief that was the head of the whole tribe. The United States would not give the whole tribe land, only individual families. The United States Government was not being responsible because it knowingly passed an act that violated the Bill of the Rights.
"Wear civilized clothes, cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property."
-Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts
-Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts
"Like other mistaken policies it was all part of the centuries old aim of turning Indians into white people."
-Angie Debo, A History of the Indians of the United States, 1970, (pg. 299)