The correct answer is: "American Indians lost their land.".
The Dawes Act was enacted in 1887 and was also called the General Allotment Act. It aimed to divide the area controlled communally by American Indian tribes into allotments. These allotments were offered to American Indians, but they had to accept to live separately from their tribe. If they accepted an allotment, they would be granted the American citizenship. In case they did not accept, the lands were sold to other propietors.
The main aim was to assimilate them into mainstream American society, and to convert their communal ownership into small pieces of private property.
The result of this act was that 90 million acres of lands formerly owned by Indian tribes, were sold to non-Natives. Moreover, Indians who accepted the allotments, who were totally unfamiliar with land ownership, became the target of speculators and criminals. Therefore, most of the lands that were previously owned by Indians were not under their control anymore.
