First Americans

$2.0 billion of the $3.4 Billion Cobell vs Salazar settlement was for Indian Trust sold under the Dawes Act. Wiki cites 90 million acres sold to corporate and non-Indian settlers and 38 million acres retained in Trust. The land still in Trust was commercially managed by the USDI/BIA until the mid 1980s for timber, minerals, grazing, etc. The other $1.4 Billion is for this mismanagement by the BIA after the Curtis Act.

So the settlement pays $2 Billion for 90 million acres (California is about 100 million acres for comparison)? Dawes Act sales continued until the 1950s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act


The Dawes Act, adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide the land into allotments for individual Indians. The Act was named for its sponsor, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts. The Dawes Act was amended in 1891 and again in 1906 by the Burke Act. The stated objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate assimilation of Indians into American society. Individual ownership of land was seen as an essential step. The act also provided that the government would purchase Indian land "excess" to that needed for allotment and open it up for settlement by non-Indians.

The Dawes Act had a negative effect on American Indians, as it ended their communal holding of property by which they had ensured that everyone had a home and a place in the tribe. It was followed by the Curtis Act, which dissolved tribal courts and governments. The act "was the culmination of American attempts to destroy tribes and their governments and to open Indian lands to settlement by non-Indians and to development by railroads."[1] Land owned by Indians decreased from 138 million acres (560,000 km2) in 1887 to 48 million acres (190,000 km2) in 1934.[2]

The Dawes Commission, set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill in 1893, was created, not to administer the Dawes Act, but to attempt to get the Five Civilized Tribes, which were excluded under the Dawes Act, to agree to an allotment plan. This commission registered the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Curtis Act of 1908 completed the process of destroying tribal governments by abolishing tribal jurisdiction of Indian land.

After decades of seeing the disarray these acts caused, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration supported passage in 1934 of the Indian Reorganization Act. It ended allotment and created
a "New Deal" for Indians, including renewing their rights to reorganize and form their own governments.[2]

etc.