The Dawes Act of 1887 authorized the Federal government to break up tribal lands of Native Americans by partitioning them into individual plots. Only those Native Americans Indians who accepted the individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens.
This Act changed deeply the traditional way of life of Native Americans, who had a history of living in tribes in larger portions of land. They also did not have the culture of farming, that also was imposed by the Act.
The Act mainly wanted to make Native Americans assimilate the American culture by annihilating their cultural and social traditions. Over 90 million acres of tribal land were stripped from Native American Indians and sold to non-natives.