The Effect of Allotment on Native American Households During the Assimilation Era

Dustin Frye, Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison

8417 William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building
@ 12:15 pm
https://www.irp.wisc.edu/2025-spring-irp-seminar-calendar/

In the early twentieth century, the U.S. government sought to culturally assimilate the hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living on reservations. One key mechanism was the Dawes Act (1887), which broke up tribally held lands and allotted them to individual Native households. This presentation examines how these land allotments shaped Native households’ economic, educational, and social outcomes. It draws on newly digitized records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, land allotment records from the Bureau of Land Management, and the 1940 U.S. Census to assess the impact of allotment at both the individual and community levels. Special attention is given to the role of local Indian Agents, whose movements across reservations reveal how their decisions influenced the policy’s implementation and its long-term consequences for Native communities.