The Dawes Act of 1887 split up reservations held by Native American tribes into smaller units and distributed these units to individuals within the tribe. The heads of each tribe received 160 acres of land if they claimed the land in the allotted time of four years. After the time period was up, the Secretary of Interior claimed the land for the Native Americans. Although …show more content…
The Homestead Act was passed in 1862. The main principles of the Homestead Act were to provide any adult citizen with the chance to claim 160 acres of government land. The land was virtually ¨free¨. The only cost was 12 dollars, which was used to pay to file the paperwork. The United States government wanted settlers to expand to the Great Plains. Therefore, the Homestead Act was a way to entice the American people to move toward the Midwest. The homesteaders had to follow the conditions of living on the land for 5 years, build a house, and work the land. The homesteader's houses had to be made of sod because there were little to no trees in the Great Plains. The United States paid people in terms of land so that they would go and populate the …show more content…
The first principle that all three acts have in common, is the obvious influence of the United States government. The government wanted something done, so they found a mean to lure the people into doing what they wanted. Principle number two is that they lured the people into compliance with the land. They wanted the Native Americans to be relocated to one area of the country, so they offered them land and citizenship if they settled down. When the United States government wanted to start to populate the midwest, they used land claiming to get them there. Finally, in the Morrill Act, they wanted to educate farmers, so what did they do? They offered land to the states to form colleges. This is a major key point in history, because of the apparent impact the government had on the American