By 1871, the federal government stopped signing treaties with Native Americans and replaced the treaty system with a law giving individual Indians ownership of land that had been tribal property.This Indian Homestead Act, official known as the Dawes Act, was a way for some Indians to become U.S. citizens. Assimilation had become the new ideal. 2  The goal was to absorb the tribes into the European-American culture and make Native people more like mainstream Americans. 3  Second, the House of Representatives was angry that they did not have a voice in these policies.