February 8, 2021 • 11 mins
On this day in 1887, U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed the Dawes General Allotment Act into law. / On this day in 1909, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite to the public.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. I
hope you enjoy. Hi. I'm Eves, and welcome to this
Day in History Class, a show that uncovers history one
day at a time. The day was February eight. US
(00:31):
President Grover Cleveland signed into law the DAWs General Allotment Act.
Before the DAWs Act was passed, Native American tribes controlled
their reservation lands, but with this new policy, lands that
were held in common by tribe members would now be
divided among individual Native Americans. The intent behind the DAWs
(00:57):
Act was for Natives to be responded, stable for their
own farms and become what the U. S Government considered
upstanding members of American society. Because of the law, Native
Americans would become US citizens who were subject to US laws,
and the government would no longer have to tend to
his tribal relations so carefully. Another major goal of the
(01:21):
act was to transfer tribal lands to white Americans. The
act called for any lands not allotted to Natives to
be put up for public sale, with the money made
from the sale going towards tribal education. Many non Natives
thought that the assimilation of Native Americans into white society
(01:43):
would be a benefit for natives. If they abandoned their
tribal ways of life, then Natives would be civilized and
saved from their own barbarity. But Native Americans didn't really
read many benefits from this process of assimilation. The DAWs
Act is named after a chief author, Senator Henry DAWs
(02:03):
from Massachusetts. DAWs believed that when people owned property, it
could help civilize them and convinced them to accept the
laws of the government, so the senator spots the DAWs Act.
The Act said that heads of household would get a
hundred and sixty acres or sixty five hectares. Single adults
(02:27):
and orphans would get eighty acres, and children would get
forty acres. At first, married women weren't given any land,
though the law was later changed to assign equal allotments
to all people. Tribe members were given four years to
select the land they wanted, and if they didn't do
(02:48):
so within the specified time, the government would make the
selection for them. The DAWs Act also said that the
US would hold the allotted land and trust for twenty
five years and only then with the full title to
the land and US citizenship be granted to the Native American.
The idea was that during this twenty five years, the
(03:11):
tribe member in charge of the allotment would get accustomed
to owning and farming the land and stray further from
their traditional communal way of life. In Section eight of
the Act specified territories and tribes that would not be
affected by the law, which included tribes in Indian Territory,
which is generally the area of the central United States,
(03:33):
the Oklahoma Territory, reservations of the Seneca Nation of New York,
and a strip of territory in Nebraska. But the US
created the DAWs Commission in eight to convince the so
called Five Civilized Tribes, or the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws,
(03:53):
and Seminoles, to give up their land and partition it
into individual allotments, and in eight the US passed the
Curtis Act, which allotted land to tribal members in exchange
for abolishing their tribal governments. The Act required natives to
claim membership in one tribe and register on the DAWs
(04:16):
rolls to receive their land allotment. Today, many people insist
that proponents of the DAWs Act truly thought the law
would be good for the welfare of Native American people.
Critics say the Act was mainly a greedy land grab.
Either way, the DAWs Act did more harm to Native
(04:37):
Americans than it did good. The DAWs Act and later
extensions of the Act broke up communities and separated Natives
from many of their cultural practices. Many tribe members were
not interested in agriculture and living a sedentary life, and
weren't equipped with the knowledge, money, or supplies to do so.
(05:00):
Much of the land Native Americans had been allotted was
arid and semi arid desert that was not suitable for farming.
Sometimes children inherited land that they couldn't farm because they
were away at boarding school. Many of the allotments lost
value because of bad least arrangements and tax foreclosures. In
(05:23):
the nineteen oh six Work Act gave the Secretary of
the Interior the authority to deem Native Americans competent or
incompetent of handling affairs for their allotment, so the government
had the power to sell a looted lands. As a result,
many Natives had their land taken or sold their land
(05:44):
to white buyers. The DAWs Act remained effective until nineteen
thirty four, when the U. S. Indian Reorganization Act or
the Wheeler Howard Act ended the land allotment policy and
allowed tribes to organize their self governments again. But by
then Native American tribes had already lost a ton of
(06:07):
their land and natural resources. They went from owning a
hundred and fifty five million acres in eight one to
forty eight million acres in nineteen thirty four. And even
though the allotment process ended nearly a century ago, Native
Americans in the US today still feel its effects. I'm
(06:31):
Eve Steathcote and hopefully you know a little bit more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can subscribe
to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the
I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'll see you here in the same place tomorrow. Hey, y'all,
(07:00):
I'm Eves and you're listening to This Day in History Class,
a podcast for people interested in the big and small
moments in history. The day was February eighth, nineteen o nine.
Belgian chemist Leo Bakeland announced his invention of bake light
(07:24):
to the public. Bake Light was the first truly synthetic resin.
Bakeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, in eighteen sixty three.
He got his Bachelor of Science at the University of Ghent,
and a couple of years later he received his Doctorate
of Science. Bakerland invented Velox photographic paper, and by the
(07:44):
late nineteenth century he was wealthy. He sold his Velox
paper rights to Eastman Kodak for a million dollars, and
at that point he moved into his snug Rock estate
in Yonker's, New York. There he had a home laboratory
where he worked with his assistant Nathaniel Thurlow. In the lab,
Bakeland began experimenting with combinations of phenol and formaldehyde. Years earlier,
(08:09):
scientists experimenting with the substances reported that the combination formed
a hard material. Other chemists had been working with phenol
and formaldehyde to create a material that could compete commercially
with celluloid, but they were unsuccessful. Bakeland and Thurlow began
working on creating a synthetic shellac. Since natural shellac was
(08:32):
in short supply. Shellac was used to insulate electrical cables,
but since it was made from a residin secreted by
a bug, there wasn't enough of it to meet demand.
They did create a phenol formaldehyde shellac called novoalak, but
it flopped. They switched gears to creating a synthetic resin
that could be infused in wood to strengthen it. Bakeland
(08:55):
started writing in a new laboratory notebook in June of
nineteen o seven, docum minting the test using the mixture
on wood. In his June nineteenth entry, he wrote the
following in part. All these tests were conducted and concentrated
horizontal digester, and the apparatus was reasonably tight. Yet the
surface of the blocks of wood does not feel hard,
(09:17):
although a small part of gum that has oozed out
is very hard. At first he called the substance substance D,
but soon he began referring to it as bake light
with two a's. In a lecture he gave to the
New York section of the American Chemical Society on February eighth,
nineteen o nine, Bakerland announced his invention. In it, he said,
(09:39):
by the use of small amounts of basses I have
succeeded in preparing a solid initial condensation product, the properties
of which simplify enormously all molding operations. Bakeland took out
more than four hundred patterns related to bake light. He
started a production in his laboratory using a machine called
a bake lay sir that subjected early stages of the
(10:02):
product to heat and pressure, but when demands got higher,
he formed a company to manufacture and market his product.
Bakelit was easily molded in less expensive to make than celluloid.
It also kept his shape once it was molded. At first,
bakelit was used in the automotive and electrical industries and
(10:22):
products like radios and light bulb sockets, but soon it
proved useful for accessories, jewelry, and household items. The bakelit
was eventually outclassed by other materials. The invention of bake
light kick started a wave that made synthetic plastics ubiquitous
in households and businesses everywhere. I'm eave Chef Cote, and
(10:43):
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If there's something I missed in the
show today, you can let us know At t d
i h C Podcast on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. And
if if you would like to write me a letter,
you can scan it, turn it into a PDF, and
(11:04):
send it to us via email at this day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks for listening and we'll see you
again tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, everyone, Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. I
hope you enjoy. Hi. I'm Eves, and welcome to this
Day in History Class, a show that uncovers history one
day at a time. The day was February eight. US
(00:31):
President Grover Cleveland signed into law the DAWs General Allotment Act.
Before the DAWs Act was passed, Native American tribes controlled
their reservation lands, but with this new policy, lands that
were held in common by tribe members would now be
divided among individual Native Americans. The intent behind the DAWs
(00:57):
Act was for Natives to be responded, stable for their
own farms and become what the U. S Government considered
upstanding members of American society. Because of the law, Native
Americans would become US citizens who were subject to US laws,
and the government would no longer have to tend to
his tribal relations so carefully. Another major goal of the
(01:21):
act was to transfer tribal lands to white Americans. The
act called for any lands not allotted to Natives to
be put up for public sale, with the money made
from the sale going towards tribal education. Many non Natives
thought that the assimilation of Native Americans into white society
(01:43):
would be a benefit for natives. If they abandoned their
tribal ways of life, then Natives would be civilized and
saved from their own barbarity. But Native Americans didn't really
read many benefits from this process of assimilation. The DAWs
Act is named after a chief author, Senator Henry DAWs
(02:03):
from Massachusetts. DAWs believed that when people owned property, it
could help civilize them and convinced them to accept the
laws of the government, so the senator spots the DAWs Act.
The Act said that heads of household would get a
hundred and sixty acres or sixty five hectares. Single adults
(02:27):
and orphans would get eighty acres, and children would get
forty acres. At first, married women weren't given any land,
though the law was later changed to assign equal allotments
to all people. Tribe members were given four years to
select the land they wanted, and if they didn't do
(02:48):
so within the specified time, the government would make the
selection for them. The DAWs Act also said that the
US would hold the allotted land and trust for twenty
five years and only then with the full title to
the land and US citizenship be granted to the Native American.
The idea was that during this twenty five years, the
(03:11):
tribe member in charge of the allotment would get accustomed
to owning and farming the land and stray further from
their traditional communal way of life. In Section eight of
the Act specified territories and tribes that would not be
affected by the law, which included tribes in Indian Territory,
which is generally the area of the central United States,
(03:33):
the Oklahoma Territory, reservations of the Seneca Nation of New York,
and a strip of territory in Nebraska. But the US
created the DAWs Commission in eight to convince the so
called Five Civilized Tribes, or the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws,
(03:53):
and Seminoles, to give up their land and partition it
into individual allotments, and in eight the US passed the
Curtis Act, which allotted land to tribal members in exchange
for abolishing their tribal governments. The Act required natives to
claim membership in one tribe and register on the DAWs
(04:16):
rolls to receive their land allotment. Today, many people insist
that proponents of the DAWs Act truly thought the law
would be good for the welfare of Native American people.
Critics say the Act was mainly a greedy land grab.
Either way, the DAWs Act did more harm to Native
(04:37):
Americans than it did good. The DAWs Act and later
extensions of the Act broke up communities and separated Natives
from many of their cultural practices. Many tribe members were
not interested in agriculture and living a sedentary life, and
weren't equipped with the knowledge, money, or supplies to do so.
(05:00):
Much of the land Native Americans had been allotted was
arid and semi arid desert that was not suitable for farming.
Sometimes children inherited land that they couldn't farm because they
were away at boarding school. Many of the allotments lost
value because of bad least arrangements and tax foreclosures. In
(05:23):
the nineteen oh six Work Act gave the Secretary of
the Interior the authority to deem Native Americans competent or
incompetent of handling affairs for their allotment, so the government
had the power to sell a looted lands. As a result,
many Natives had their land taken or sold their land
(05:44):
to white buyers. The DAWs Act remained effective until nineteen
thirty four, when the U. S. Indian Reorganization Act or
the Wheeler Howard Act ended the land allotment policy and
allowed tribes to organize their self governments again. But by
then Native American tribes had already lost a ton of
(06:07):
their land and natural resources. They went from owning a
hundred and fifty five million acres in eight one to
forty eight million acres in nineteen thirty four. And even
though the allotment process ended nearly a century ago, Native
Americans in the US today still feel its effects. I'm
(06:31):
Eve Steathcote and hopefully you know a little bit more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can subscribe
to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the
I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'll see you here in the same place tomorrow. Hey, y'all,
(07:00):
I'm Eves and you're listening to This Day in History Class,
a podcast for people interested in the big and small
moments in history. The day was February eighth, nineteen o nine.
Belgian chemist Leo Bakeland announced his invention of bake light
(07:24):
to the public. Bake Light was the first truly synthetic resin.
Bakeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, in eighteen sixty three.
He got his Bachelor of Science at the University of Ghent,
and a couple of years later he received his Doctorate
of Science. Bakerland invented Velox photographic paper, and by the
(07:44):
late nineteenth century he was wealthy. He sold his Velox
paper rights to Eastman Kodak for a million dollars, and
at that point he moved into his snug Rock estate
in Yonker's, New York. There he had a home laboratory
where he worked with his assistant Nathaniel Thurlow. In the lab,
Bakeland began experimenting with combinations of phenol and formaldehyde. Years earlier,
(08:09):
scientists experimenting with the substances reported that the combination formed
a hard material. Other chemists had been working with phenol
and formaldehyde to create a material that could compete commercially
with celluloid, but they were unsuccessful. Bakeland and Thurlow began
working on creating a synthetic shellac. Since natural shellac was
(08:32):
in short supply. Shellac was used to insulate electrical cables,
but since it was made from a residin secreted by
a bug, there wasn't enough of it to meet demand.
They did create a phenol formaldehyde shellac called novoalak, but
it flopped. They switched gears to creating a synthetic resin
that could be infused in wood to strengthen it. Bakeland
(08:55):
started writing in a new laboratory notebook in June of
nineteen o seven, docum minting the test using the mixture
on wood. In his June nineteenth entry, he wrote the
following in part. All these tests were conducted and concentrated
horizontal digester, and the apparatus was reasonably tight. Yet the
surface of the blocks of wood does not feel hard,
(09:17):
although a small part of gum that has oozed out
is very hard. At first he called the substance substance D,
but soon he began referring to it as bake light
with two a's. In a lecture he gave to the
New York section of the American Chemical Society on February eighth,
nineteen o nine, Bakerland announced his invention. In it, he said,
(09:39):
by the use of small amounts of basses I have
succeeded in preparing a solid initial condensation product, the properties
of which simplify enormously all molding operations. Bakeland took out
more than four hundred patterns related to bake light. He
started a production in his laboratory using a machine called
a bake lay sir that subjected early stages of the
(10:02):
product to heat and pressure, but when demands got higher,
he formed a company to manufacture and market his product.
Bakelit was easily molded in less expensive to make than celluloid.
It also kept his shape once it was molded. At first,
bakelit was used in the automotive and electrical industries and
(10:22):
products like radios and light bulb sockets, but soon it
proved useful for accessories, jewelry, and household items. The bakelit
was eventually outclassed by other materials. The invention of bake
light kick started a wave that made synthetic plastics ubiquitous
in households and businesses everywhere. I'm eave Chef Cote, and
(10:43):
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If there's something I missed in the
show today, you can let us know At t d
i h C Podcast on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. And
if if you would like to write me a letter,
you can scan it, turn it into a PDF, and
(11:04):
send it to us via email at this day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks for listening and we'll see you
again tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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