Burke Act
Burke Act (1906), also known as the Forced Fee Patenting Act, amended the Dawes Act of 1887 (formally known as the General Allotment Act ("GAA"), under which the communal land held by tribes on the Indian reservations was broken up and distributed in severalty to individual households of tribal members. It required the government to assess whether individuals were "competent and capable" before giving them fee simple patents to their allotted land.

Because the federal government believed that many Indians were not prepared for United States citizenship, the act further provided that citizenship not be granted to Native American individuals until at the time of the final validation of their trust patents instead of upon the receipt of the trust patents, as stated in the Dawes Act. Those who were issued fee simple patents were granted citizenship upon receipt. Those whose land remained in trust status were to be granted citizenship at the conclusion of the twenty-five year trust period.

It was named for U. S. Congressman Charles H. Burke.
Q763104
Dawes Act
MEDIA
Q5398059
Indian reservations
Concept
Q42138
citizenship
Concept
Q1064658
Charles H. Burke
PER
Q4998923
Burke Act
UNK
1887-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1887
DATE
+1906^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1906
NUMBER
main subject
point in time