The Native Americans were still considered a less civilized race, but those who opposed the law believed that the Indians could become civilized without any guidance. Not to mention that the land given to the natives was most often selected for them, most of the land allocated was poor land which made farming almost impossible. The best land would go to the more civilized of the two races or to the wealthier one. Although the Indians were given poor quality land, there were many occasions when the Indians were cheated out of their land allotment before the government released their title to the land. Any land offered to the natives was either stolen from them or of poor quality. The Dawes Act seemed to be more in the interests of the white settlers than in those of the targeted party. The Dawes Act may have been written with the goal of ensuring the security and prosperity of the Indians, but it was doomed to failure. In the past, multiple treaties and laws were proposed and passed in what seemed to be in the best interests of the native people, but all were abandoned and rewritten with fewer offerings time and time again. The lands given to the natives were often not the easiest to tame, nor the best for trying to live decently. Often, the Indians even had their land confiscated. Ultimately, the Dawes Act was an attempted land grab, and a very successful one