The Allotment of Reservation Lands Begins
A federal agent arrives in North Yakima to break up the Yakima Indian reservation under the Dawes Act.
John K. Rankin, of Lawrence, Kan., special agent of the department of Indian affairs, arrived here on Sunday and left on Tuesday for Fort Simcoe to begin the allotment in severalty of the lands of the Yakima Indian reservation. Mr. Rankin says he will use his utmost endeavor to keep out renegades and Indians not entitled to lands.
“Mr. Rankin says he will use his utmost endeavor to keep out renegades and Indians not entitled to lands.”
The allotment policy, or Dawes Act, was designed to dismantle Indigenous collective land ownership and assimilate tribal members into the settler-colonial agricultural model. This process resulted in a massive loss of reservation land and remains a foundational trauma for the Yakama Nation.
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