Q25

[ccalice21]

I am down to choice (B) and (C).
I understand why (B) is correct, but can anyone help me eliminate (C)?
According to line 34-36, many allottees would "sell their lands back to the tribe", does it imply that originally their lands were bought from their tribes?

[superduperchong]

I agree, the phrasing "sell back to the tribe" is a bit confusing, but it doesn't exactly imply that they bought the lands in the first place--it was communal use. I think "back" in this case refers to the reversing the splitting of the land rather than reversing a previous sale.

Let's say we were in classroom and we had a pack of markers that we all shared. Suddenly someone comes in and says we can each take a marker. However, I prefer sharing the markers instead of having one color, so I (and maybe others) sell it back to the classroom so that we can use the markers again communally. "Selling it back" in this case doesn't necessarily mean that I had to buy it in the first place, it means I'm bringing my portion back to the collective.

[demetri.blaisdell]

Good question and a good answer. Here the word "back" only refers to the result (returning the land) as opposed to actually having bought the land.

Also, the first part of the sentence assumes that the communal use was preferable prior to the Dawes Act by saying "If communal land use remained preferable."

I hope that this clears up any lingering doubts. Let me know if you have any questions.

Demetri

[Nina]

how can we infer from the passage that B is correct?

Thanks!

[ohthatpatrick]

We get our support for (B) when the passage was discussing that Native Americans did not have a tradition of private ownership of lands. Instead they had communal ownership.

An entire tribe was thought to own a piece of land, not an individual member.

This comes from lines 23-26.

Let me know if you have any more questions about this.