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| Other short titles | General Allotment Act Amendment of 1906 |
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| Long title | An Act to amend section six of an act approved February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes. |
| Nicknames | Dawes Act Amendment of 1906 |
| Enacted by | the 59th United States Congress |
| Effective | May 8, 1906 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 59–149 |
| Statutes at Large | 34 Stat. 182 |
| Codification | |
| Titles amended | 25 U.S.C.: Indians |
| U.S.C. sections amended | 25 U.S.C. ch. 9 § 349 |
| Legislative history | |
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The Burke Act (1906), formally known as the General Allotment Act Amendment of 1906 and also called the Forced Fee Patenting Act, amended the Dawes Act of 1887 under which the communal land held by tribes on the Indian reservations was broken up and distributed in severalty to individual households of tribal members. It required the government to assess whether individuals were "competent and capable" before giving them fee simple patents to their allotted land.
Because the federal government believed that many Indians were not prepared for United States citizenship, the act further provided that citizenship will not be granted to Native American individuals until at the time of the final validation of their trust patents instead of upon the receipt of the trust patents, as stated in the Dawes Act. Those who were issued fee simple patents were granted citizenship upon receipt. Those whose land remained in trust status were to be granted citizenship at the conclusion of the twenty-five year trust period.
It was named for U. S. Congressman Charles H. Burke.