North Dawes Glacier flows south from the Coast Mountains to North Dawes Inlet, about 74 miles (119 km) southeast of Juneau and 51 miles (82 km) north of Petersburg, Alaska. The local name was reported in 1961 by the U.S. Geological Survey and is named after the Dawes Glacier at the head of Endicott Arm. Dawes Glacier was named in 1891 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for Henry Laurens Dawes who was a politician from Massachusetts.

Dawes is notable for the Dawes Act of 1887, which was intended to stimulate the assimilation of Native Americans by ending tribal government and control of communal lands. The Act was especially directed at the tribes in what was then Indian Territory and provided for the allotment of tribal lands to individual households of tribal members, and for granting them U.S. citizenship. In addition, this extinguished tribal land claims in this territory, despite the U.S. government pledging that the land would be theirs in perpetuity. This later enabled the admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907.

The North Dawes Glacier ceased to be tidal in 1923 and between 1929 and 1935 it retreated another 1000 feet (305 m). There is now a prograding delta at the head of the inlet deposited by the North Dawes River. The terminus of the North Dawes Glacier is currently located about 2.2 miles (3.5 km) from the delta at an elevation of about 650 feet (200 m). The glacier terminus is at the head of a lake that is 1.7 miles (2.7 km) long. The lake is drained by the North Dawes River that flows for about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) to the inlet. Read more here and here. Explore more of North Dawes River here: