description of the dawes act of 1887
Poster. The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887), adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.he Dawes Act was amended in 1891, and again in 1906 by the Burke Act. The Act was named for its creator, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of Massachusetts.