How did the Dawes Act help reinforce ideas of race?
In the late 19th century, the United States government moves to destroy common landholding of the Indian nations in Oklahoma. This was a policy that was first applied to Indians elsewhere through the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act attempted to destroy the Cherokee nation. It divided the commonly held Cherokee land among individuals, and essentially made the Cherokee nation superfluous. In the process of doing so, the Dawes Commission made a roll of all Cherokees. And on that roll, they specified several things. For one thing, there was a separate roll for intermarried whites. People were identified not simply as citizens of the Cherokee nation, but they were identified racially on that roll. There was a roll of Cherokee freedmen, people identified specifically by race. And Cherokee freedmen, even those who had Cherokee ancestry, were identified not on the “Cherokee by blood” roll, but on the “freedmen” roll. And the third roll was “Cherokees by blood.” And “Cherokees by blood” were not simpl
