In 1887 Congress passed the Dawes Act to deal with the "Indian Problem". The act divided reservation land into property for individual Indians over the age of 18. Indians could chose to either stay on the land or sell it. The government hope that the land would be used for crops or for animals to graze on. Indians could choose to apply to become American citizens and also try to work for the government. The law also provided ways to divide up the reservation if there was not enough land for all the residents. It also provided ways for Indians who were not on reservations to apply for land grants. Once and Indian has stayed on their land for 5 years the land is supposed to become theirs for good. However this was not completely true because the government could just take the land if they wanted it and pay them for compensation.
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