Mean Spirit
             With oil being discovered on Native American property in Oklahoma during the early 1920's, it was a chance for whites to get rich and it was the start of the demise of a stable Native American civilization. As a result of the Dawes Act of 1887, reservations were divided into plots given among the Indians. The plots gave each Indian 160 acres of land, which they were supposed to farm for 25 years and then they would become citizens of America. The land that was left over was to be sold to the public. The plots that were giving to the Indians were discovered to be occupied with enormous amounts of oil that was worth a lot of money. Whites had a huge impact on Native American life by taking their, and land trying to make Indians more " European like." The Indians were giving the land that was filled with oil, and the oil seekers would do anything to get a hold on the oil lands, which had a devastating affect on the Indians. "Between 1887 and the 1930's, Indian landholdings dwindled from 138 million acres to 52 million."(A People and a Nation pg.323) Law's were passed which allowed mixed-blood people on reservations to be able to sell their land not having to obey the Dawes act twenty five-year periods, the whites that bought the land would pay for the land in useless money. " Speculators then dumped many Ojibwas, who white "experts" had declared " mixed-bloods", into signing away their land in return for counterfeit money and worthless merchandise."(A People and a Nation pg.323) Since Indians came from a different culture than the Europeans, they were seen as being " barbaric" and whites wanted to change those ways so Indians would become more civilized. Not only did the American government want to change where the Indians lived; they wanted to change their culture.
             The Indians were forced to move to certain reserv...