What two aspects of Native American life was the Dawes Act supposed to eliminate?

Answer 1

Congress changed government policy with the Dawes Act in 1887. The law aimed to eliminate what Americans regarded as the two weaknesses of Native American life: the lack of private property and the nomadic tradition. The Dawes Act proposed to break up the reservations at the end identification with the tribal group. Each Native American would receive a plot of reservation land. The goal was to encourage native peoples to become farmers and, eventually, American citizens. Native American children would be sent to white-run boarding schools. Some of the reservations lands would be sold to support the schooling. Over the next 50 years, the government divided up the reservations. Speculators acquired most of the valuable land. native American often received dry, gravelly plots that were not suited to farming. The Dawes Act changed forever the Native Americans way of life and weakened their cultural traditions. in their despair the Sioux turned in 1890 to Wovoka, a prophet. Wovoka claimed that the Sioux could regain their former greatness if they performed a ritual known as the Ghost dance. the Ghost Dance was a way for the Sioux to express their culture that was being destroyed. As the ritual spread, reservations officials became alarmed and decided to ban the dance.Believing that their chief, Sitting Bull, was the leader of the movement,police went to his camp to arrest him. During a scuffle, the shot Sitting Bull.