[188]

Indian policy[edit]
An 1881 political cartoon about Carl Schurz's management of the Indian Bureau
Interior Secretary Carl Schurz carried out Hayes's American Indian policy, beginning with preventing the War Department from taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[189] Hayes and Schurz carried out a policy that included assimilation into white culture, educational training, and dividing Indian land into individual household allotments.[190] Hayes believed his policies would lead to self-sufficiency and peace between Indians and whites.[191] The allotment system under the Dawes Act, later signed by President Grover Cleveland in 1887, was favored by liberal reformers at the time, including Schurz, but instead proved detrimental to American Indians. They lost much of their land through sales of what the government classified as "surplus lands", and more to unscrupulous white speculators who tried to get the Indians to sell their allotments.[192] Hayes and Schurz reformed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reduce fraud and gave Indians responsibility for policing their reservations, but they were generally understaffed.[193]
Hayes dealt with several conflicts with Indian tribes. 