The Homesteading Acts were laws issued by the US government to promote Westward expansion by giving away free land. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Homesteading Act into law. Under this initial law, a US citizen could claim a 160-acre plot of public land in the West by filing an application, living on and improving the land for a minimum of five years, and filing for a deed within seven years.

While the Homesteading Acts offered free land to settlers, this “free” land came at a great cost to Native Americans. Much of the land offered as homesteading plots was seized from the Native Americans who previously inhabited the Great Plains through legislation like the Dawes Act.