Answer:
Explanation:The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887Following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the American Government and its people turned their attention from the uncomfortable aftermath of the Civil War and ending of slavery to focus on economic aspirations. The United States government was eager to encourage expansion into the central and western parts of the country and ease the mounting pressures of the population booms that were occurring in the major urban centers along the east coast due to the 2ndIndustrial Revolution and increased immigration. On the surface, the Dawes Act of 1887 (aka General Allotment Act) promoted the concept of westward expansion by promising land in return for settlement. However, the act was primarily an attempt to handle increasing conflicts and to separate American Indians from tribal lands while trying to force cultural conformity against an Indian population that had widely resisted it.The act was primarily an attempt to handle increasing conflicts and to separate American Indians from tribal lands while trying to force cultural conformity against an Indian population that had widely resisted it.Dating back to the French and Indian War (1754-1763), Americans had eagerly and frequently pushed west in an attempt to expand land holdings and oftentimes came into conflict with Native Americans. At the center of this conflict was the European (and later American) model of land ownership. A model that conflicted with the traditional and cultural understandings of land usage and communal property utilized by American Indians. Moving with the seasons, following the food sources that were the migrating animals had always been the cultural norm for American Indians. The European model of land ownership, subsistence farming, and commercialization of natural resources was as foreign to native populations as these white outsiders were. This conflict over land ownership and cultural norms frequently led to conflicts and what the US Government had dubbed the “Indian problem”.