During his first term in office, from 1885 to 1889, Congress enacted three measures with devastating effects on Native Americans. The Major Crimes Act of 1885 provided for federal jurisdiction over serious crimes committed by Indians on their own land; the Dawes Act of 1887—sometimes called the climax of assimilation policies—authorized the President to divide Indian land into individual allotments, forcing Indians into private property ownership; and the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 opened “unassigned” lands to white settlers.
Grover Cleveland opened his second term as president of the United States with a call for “humanity and consistency” toward Indians as efforts continued to assimilate them into mainstream American culture.
