Land Fractionation

The Result of Allotment

Historical Background:

The Dawes Act (General Allotment Act of 1887)

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The Dawes Act...

  • Authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.
  • Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended allotment.
  • Effects of this policy can still be felt today in the resulting fractionation of trust land.

Indian Allotments on the

Rosebud Reservation, 1903

(from the Records of the Bureau of

Indian Affairs, National Archives)

Fractionation:

A Serious Problem

Facing Communities

  • As tracts (or allotments) of lands are passed down through generations, they gain more and more individual owners.
  • Because the number of owners make it difficult to use the land, these allotments often lie idle and cannot be used for any beneficial purpose.
  • Currently, there are approximately 150 locations with fractionated tracts of land, with approximately 243,000 unique owners.

An illustration depicting fractionation

of a possible allotment of land over

six generations, assuming only

three heirs per generation.

Original Allotment

100 acres

2nd Generation, 1/3

3rd Generation, 1/9

4th Generation, 1/27

5th Generation, 1/81

6th Generation, 1/243