"Reconfiguring the Reservation is a story about Indian agency, negotiation, and resistance to an imposed federal policy. Greenwald traces the Nez Perces' and Jicarilla Apaches' experiences with the 1887 General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act. This legislation sought to assimilate Indians into the American mainstream by dividing collectively controlled reservations into individually owned allotments of land.

Once Indians had private property, reformers reasoned, they would practice agriculture and eventually adopt "American" economic and natural rules."--BOOK JACKET.