Final answer:
The Dawes Act of 1887 is the legislation that divided up reservation land into individual family plots for Native Americans and held the surplus lands for white settlers. It played a significant role in the government's attempt to assimilate Native Americans into American society and undermined Native American communal lifeways and land sovereignty. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 reversed many of the Dawes Act's policies.
Step-by-step explanation:
The act that divided up the land into plots to be distributed among Indians was the Dawes Act of 1887. This legislation was passed with the intent of assimilating Native Americans by transitioning them from communal land ownership to individual land ownership, a concept that echoed the homesteader ethos of Euro-American settlement. Under the Dawes Act, reservation land was partitioned into individual family plots.
The assigned plots were often of poor quality, leaving the more desirable “surplus” lands available for white settlers. Furthermore, these allotments were held in trust by the government for twenty-five years before full ownership was conveyed to the individual Native American, a reflection of the paternalistic approach of the government of the time towards Native peoples.
The overall effects of the Dawes Act were harmful to the social, economic, and cultural structures of Native American communities. It resulted in a significant loss of Native American land and served to disrupt traditional communal living arrangements, undermining tribal sovereignty and identity.
The act served as a tool for the government to acquire more land for white settlement and advanced the goal of forcing Native Americans to assimilate into American society. It was not until the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, also known as 'The Indian New Deal,' that many of these policies were reversed, and efforts were made to restore lands to Native American tribes and encourage self-governance.