Question

question 17 of 20

how did the passage of the dawes act affect indigenous peoples?

a. indigenous peoples were forced to help build the railroads.
b. indigenous peoples who did not claim a plot of land lost that land to american citizens.
c. indigenous children were sent away from their parents to residential schools.
d. traditional indigenous peoples methods of hunting, fishing, and gathering were restricted.

Explanation:

Analyze the purpose of the Dawes Act

The Dawes Act of 1887 (General Allotment Act) aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society by breaking up communal tribal lands into individual family plots.

Evaluate the consequences of land allotment

Tribal lands remaining after individual allotments were declared "surplus" and sold to non-Indigenous American settlers. Indigenous peoples who did not or could not claim these plots lost their ancestral lands.

Eliminate incorrect options

Option A is incorrect as railroad labor was not a direct provision of the act. Option C refers to the residential school system, which was a separate assimilationist policy. Option D refers to general reservation restrictions rather than the specific land-allotment mechanism of the Dawes Act.

Answer:

• (A) Indigenous peoples were forced to help build the railroads.
• (B) Indigenous peoples who did not claim a plot of land lost that land to American citizens. (Correct answer)
• (C) Indigenous children were sent away from their parents to residential schools.
• (D) Traditional Indigenous peoples' methods of hunting, fishing, and gathering were restricted.