1
What idea motivated settlers to push into Indian Territory?
Manifest Destiny
Who were the Boomers?
Settlers who pushed for opening Unassigned Lands.
How did Manifest Destiny influence the Boomer Movement?
It justified demands to open tribal lands
•What was the main goal of the Dawes Act?
To divide tribal lands into individual allotments.
Why did tribes oppose allotment?
It destroyed communal landholding and sovereignty.
How did the Dawes Act contribute to the loss of tribal land across Oklahoma?
By breaking tribal lands into allotments and selling leftover land to settlers.
Explain how U.S. policy between 1880–1934 changed tribal sovereignty and identity.
Federal allotment, citizenship laws, and leadership control weakened sovereignty; the IRA restored aspects of self‑government.
How did U.S. policy weaken tribal identity before the IRA?
Federal control over leadership and citizenship
How did settlers view the Dawes Act?
As a way to gain access to surplus tribal lands.
How did federal policy affect tribal citizenship?
Congress often controlled who counted as tribal citizens.
A 19th‑century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent
Manifest Destiny
Federal officials and assimilationists believed this would help Native people adopt American farming and private property systems
Allotment
Tribal nations viewed the Dawes Act as a direct threat to what
sovereignty, culture, and survival
The Dawes Act resulted in the loss of how many acres of Tribal lands?
90 million acres
What did the Indian Reorganization Act attempt to restore?
Tribal self‑government.
What two major actions played key roles in this loss of sovereignty for the Indian tribes?
the Dawes Act and the Indian Reorganization Act
Settlers believed this part of the Indian Territory should be open to American homesteaders.
Unassigned lands
Manifest Destiny shaped the Boomer Movement by giving settlers ideological justification for demanding access to the Unassigned Lands, ultimately contributing to this
1889 Land Run
Who ended up with most of the land redistributed in the Dawes Act
Non Indians
The process Dawes Act that required the federal government to determine who was a tribal member for the purpose of allotting land.
The Dawes Rolls
What reduced Indian tribes of their land base, weakened tribal authority, and led to massive losses through sales, fraud, and federal control.
Allotment
Speculators, railroad companies, and ranchers supported allotment because it
created opportunities to purchase land cheaply
Federal officials argued that communal landholding prevented progress and that individual ownership would promote
"Civilization" of the tribes
Who had to approve tribal constitutions, limiting tribal autonomy.
The federal government
This ended allotment but encouraged tribes to adopt U.S.-style constitutions.
The Indian Reorganization Act