The reformers behind the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 intended to protect
Native American land holdings by allotting parcels of reservation property
to individual Indian families.  The term "severalty" referred to the
breaking up of tribal land into smaller, privately-owned portions.  Once
all the families received their allotments, the government would then
negotiate for the purchase of surplus reservation lands and throw them
open to white homesteading.  The proceeds from the sales would go to the
Indian communities.  At first, the Five Civilized Tribes living in Indian
Territory were exempted, but then pressures from eager homesteaders,
called the "boomers," prompted Congress to open up the unassigned district
of Indian Territory, known as the Cherokee Strip.  On the morning of
September 16, 1893, thousands of homesteaders poured into the territory in
the first of the great land rushes that resulted form this policy.