Henry Laurens Dawes (30 October 1816 – 5 February 1903) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-MA 11) from 4 March 1857 to 4 March 1863 (succeeding Mark Trafton), from MA-10 from 4 March 1863 to 3 March 1873 (succeeding Charles Delano and preceding Alvah Crocker), and from MA-11 from 4 March 1873 to 3 March 1875 (preceding Chester W. Chapin), and a US Senator from 4 March 1875 to 3 March 1893 (succeeding William B. Washburn and preceding Henry Cabot Lodge).
Biography[]
Henry Laurens Dawes was born in Cummington, Massachusetts in 1816, and he became a lawyer in North Adams in 1842. He went on to serve in the State House from 1848 to 1849 and in 1852, and he also served in the US House of Representatives from 1857 to 1875 and as a US Senator from 1875 to 1893. He was notable from 1887 Dawes Act, which was aimed at assimilating the Native Americans by dissolving their tribal governments and granting them US citizenship. He died in 1903, and Oklahoma became a state four years later.