Timeline Tuesday 8 February 1887

Events on Tuesday 8 February 1887 1

• 1887 Dawes Act signed into law US policy divides tribal lands into individual allotments President Grover Cleveland signs the Dawes Act, authorizing the federal government to break up communally held Native American tribal lands into individual allotments. Surplus land not allotted to tribal members is opened to sale to non-Native settlers. The policy leads to the loss of tens of millions of acres of Native-held land over subsequent decades.