Cedric Cromwell again demonstrates his lack of knowledge of our history by mistaking the Dawes Act (named after its sponsor, Massachusetts senator Henry L. Dawes) for the mechanisms that led to our loss of Tribal lands. In fact, the chain of events began with the partition of lands in 1842, whereby Individuals were deeded the lands that they occupied, and at least 60 acres per person. The remainder was common land, which was forcibly sold when Mashpee was incorporated as a town in 1870, seventeen years before Dawes
Take a look at the 1877 map of Mashpee by Cyrus Cahoon, and you will see that Tribe members owned the greater part of land in town. Much of this land was lost through means both fair and foul, by trickery and deceit, but the Massachusetts Land Court did much of it legally. The whole sordid history of the loss of our Tribal and individual properties is a subject that requires a lot of research and can not be explained in a few paragraphs. I will try to dig up a Cahoon map and put it up for all to see.
History is best left to those who know.
