Feb. 8, 2021, marks 134 years since President Grover Cleveland signed The Dawes General Allotment Act. This policy divided tribal land into individual holdings, and it included provisions for opening the leftover plots to non-Native settlement. As a result, tribes across the United States lost 62 percent of their land, or approximately 86 million acres, which included large swaths of the Citizen Potawatomi reservation in present-day Oklahoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt served the larger purpose because the larger purpose was twofold: to make us more like white people or destroy us and get large amounts of land out of Native control and into the hands of individual, non-Native citizens,\u201d said Dr. Kelli Mosteller, Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Dawes Act did not impact every tribe in the United States, it affected a tremendous number of Native Nations within the central Plains region, including most that call Oklahoma home. Settlers wished to hold property and establish farming and ranching enterprises on the fertile lands between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountain ranges. The Dawes Act provided the groundwork needed to meet these requests and encouraged agricultural development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the act, Citizen Potawatomi received allotments based upon age and family standing: 160 acres for heads of households, 80 for unwed adults and 40 for those under 18. The Potawatomi reservation included portions of present-day Pottawatomie, Cleveland and Oklahoma counties, and many Tribal members chose plots in the southern and northern-most portions of the 900-square-mile reservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n