years. He negotiated with the tribes for the extinction of the communal title to their land and for the dissolution of the tribal governments. The goal was to make tribal members a constituent part of the United States. In the process, Native American tribes lost about 90million acres (360,000km²) of treaty land, or about two thirds of their 1887 land base, over the life of the Dawes Act. About 90,000 Indians were made landless. The Act forced Native people onto small tracts of land, distant from their kin relations. The allotment policy depleted the land base and ended hunting as a means of subsistence, creating a crisis for many tribes. The Coolidge administration studied the effects of the Dawes Act and the current conditions for Indians in what is known as the Meriam Report, completed in 1928. It found that the Dawes Act had been used illegally to deprive Native Americans of their land rights. Death Dawes died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on February 5, 1903. In popular culture Aidan Quinn played Dawes in the film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, adapted from a 1970 history of Native Americans, the United States, and the West written by Dee Brown. References External links Retrieved on 2009-04-23 "Dawes Act", Our Documents.gov website 1816 births 1903 deaths People from Cummington, Massachusetts Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Deans of the United States House of Representatives Republican Party United States senators from Massachusetts Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Republican Party Massachusetts state senators County district attorneys in Massachusetts 19th-century American newspaper editors 19th-century American politicians Editors of Massachusetts newspapers Massachusetts lawyers Yale University alumni People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War People of the Reconstruction Era Half-Breeds (Republican Party) Civil service reform in the United States