Burke Act
BURKE ACT
BURKE ACT. The Burke Act of 1906 amended the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 by changing the time when Indians would be enfranchised as citizens and become subject to the civil and criminal jurisdictions of the states in which they resided. Under the Dawes Act Indians became a citizen immediately upon receipt of a "trust patent" for their allotments. A "trust patent" prevented land from being sold (and taxed) for twenty-five years. Politicians argued that many Indians at that time were unprepared for citizenship, and had been exploited in connection with their voting rights. The Burke Act intended to remedy this situation by providing that Indians would become a citizen only at the end of the twenty-five-year trust period, when they became the unrestricted owners of their land. The secretary of the interior was given the right to abbreviate the probationary period for Indians judged competent to manage their own affairs. Competent Indians received fee-simple titles, which made land subject to taxation and removed all restrictions on its lease or sale. Competency commissions were established in various parts of the country to pass on the qualifications of Indian applicants. In some cases, commissions unilaterally declared Indians who had not applied for citizenship to be competent. The net effect of the Burke Act was to accelerate the alienation of Indian lands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
McDonnell, Janet A. The Dispossession of the American Indian, 1887–1934. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
FrankRzeczkowski