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Difficulty: EasyWestward Expansion and American Indians

"The law providing for the allotment of land in severalty to the Indians... is a policy of assimilation, which by dissolving their tribal relations and putting them in possession of individual holdings, seeks to prepare them for the duties of citizenship."
— President Grover Cleveland, Annual Message to Congress, 1887

Which of the following was a primary goal of the federal policy described in the excerpt?

  1. To integrate Native Americans into mainstream society by replacing communal tribal lands with individual private property.Answer
  2. B
    To protect Native American cultural sovereignty by legally securing tribal lands from white settlement.
  3. C
    To grant Native American tribes complete political independence from the United States government.
  4. D
    To establish permanent, large-scale communal reservations that would remain free of federal oversight.

Answer

To integrate Native Americans into mainstream society by replacing communal tribal lands with individual private property.
The correct answer is correct because the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was designed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American culture by breaking up communal tribal lands and redistributing them as individual plots of private property, with the expectation that Native Americans would adopt farming lifestyles.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to identify the key policy terms.
The excerpt references the 'allotment of land in severalty' and describes it as a 'policy of assimilation' designed to dissolve 'tribal relations.'
This links the historical context directly to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.
2
Connect the identified policy to its historical goals.
The Dawes Act sought to eradicate Native American tribal identities by forcing individuals to adopt European-American styles of agriculture and private property ownership.
This establishes the underlying purpose of the allotment policy.
3
Select the option that matches this goal.
The correct option correctly identifies the goal of integrating Native Americans by replacing communal lands with private property.
This aligns the analysis of the text with the correct historical outcome.

Key Concept

Assimilative policies and the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
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Topics

Westward Expansion and American Indians

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