Final answer:
The Dawes Act harmed the communal structure of American Indian society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Dawes Act, passed in 1887, was a law aimed at encouraging assimilation among Native Americans. It authorized the government to divide many existing reservations into individual family plots, with the remaining land being transferred to the federal government. One effect of the Dawes Act was that it harmed the communal structure of American Indian society. It ended their communal lifestyle that was the basis of their social, economic, and religious ways of life. The individual allotments of land undermined the collective ownership and disrupted the traditional way of life for many tribes.
The Dawes Act harmed the communal structure of American Indian society by dividing their land into individual plots, leading to the loss of communal lands and promoting assimilation.
One effect of the Dawes Act was that it harmed the communal structure of American Indian society. The Dawes Act of 1887 authorized the government to divide a large number of existing reservations into individual family plots. This breaking up of land aimed to encourage assimilation among Native Americans, resulting in Native Americans being granted less fertile lands and their communal lands reduced drastically. Once individual allotments were made, any "surplus" land from the reservations was typically sold to non-Native settlers, thereby further reducing the land available to tribes and undermining their communal living arrangements, which were integral to their social, economic, and religious ways of life.