Documents and publications from the Carlisle Indian School offer insight into the involvement of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in other aspects of Indian life. The BIA was tasked with breaking up Indian lands and dividing them among Indian individuals and their families. The Dawes Act (The General Allotment Act) passed by Congress February 8, 1887, set a precedent for the legislation regulating and controlling Indian Lands through allotment. Legislation and allotments varied from region to region and between nations.
Student files show the concerns of students, problems that arose in obtaining individual allotments and tribal trust funds, and the many forms government financial intervention took. School publications, such as The Red Man, address government allotment on a national level and government attitudes towards Indians, pointing to specific pieces of legislation and emphasizing the connection between land ownership and citizenship.
