Henry Laurens Dawes Biography

Born in Cummington, Massachusetts; later serves in the House and Senate.

Serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Serves in the Massachusetts Senate.

Serves as district attorney for the western district of Massachusetts.

Takes his seat as a United States representative from Massachusetts.

Chairs the House Committee on Elections during the Civil War Congresses.

Chairs the House Appropriations Committee during the Forty-first Congress.

Chairs the House Ways and Means Committee in the early 1870s.

Begins service as a Republican senator from Massachusetts.

Chairs the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

Becomes chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Reelected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts.

Reelected to a third Senate term from Massachusetts.

The Dawes Act authorizes division of reservation land into individual allotments.

Senator Henry Dawes sponsors the General Allotment Act, authorizing allotment of tribal lands to individual Native Americans.

The General Allotment Act is named for Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts.

The Dawes Act seeks assimilation through individual landholding and changes in tribal land tenure.

The Dawes Act permits reservation land to be broken into allotments while surplus land can pass from tribal control.

Begins negotiations aimed at dividing communal tribal lands into individual allotments.

Congress authorizes a commission to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes.

Appointed first chairman of the commission later known as the Dawes Commission.

The commission's enrollment work contributes to records later known as the Dawes Rolls.