The land granted to most allottees was not sufficient for economic viability, and division of land between heirs upon the allottees' deaths resulted in land fractionalization. Most allotment land, which could be sold after a statutory period of 25 years, was eventually sold to non-Native buyers at bargain prices. Additionally, land deemed to be "surplus" beyond what was needed for allotment was opened to white settlers, though the profits from the sales of these lands were often invested in programs meant to aid the American Indians. Native Americans lost, over the 47 years of the Act's life, about 90 million acres (360,000 km²) of treaty land, or about two-thirds of the 1887 land base. About 90,000 Indians were made landless
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The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was the division of Native American land that was then given to individual Native Americans. The Act remained in effect until it was amended by the Burke Act in 1906.
c. Western Native Americans were not used to settled agriculture life
The Dawes Act was passed in 1887 and it tried to dissolve Indian tribes by redistributing the land. It was designed to forestall growing Indian poverty, but it resulted in many Indians losing their land to speculators.
President Grover Cleavland passed the Dawes Act in 1887
destroy traditional native american life