A Homestead Act ceded 160 acres to settlers who agreed to work the land for five years. The National Banking Act followed in 1863. Two other key articles of legislation were the Morrill Land Grant Act (1862), which provided federal support to state colleges teaching “agriculture and mechanic arts,” and the Contract Labor Act (1864), which encouraged the importation of immigrant labor.
The US government saw the land out West as unused and consequently allowed people to take the land they wanted out there. However, they neglected the fact that people were previously living out West. Native Americans had made the West their home, long before any homesteader moved there.
In 1851, the Indian Appropriations Act pushed Indians to reservations in the West. According to the Indians, the land they were given to live on was too restrictive. There was not enough vacancy for them to hunt on or grow crops on. In 1871, the government passed the Dawes Act, this forced Indians to integrate with American society. Congressman Henry Dawes stated that the act had a "civilizing effect on Indians because it forced them to cultivate and, live in European-inspired houses, ride in Studebaker wagons...and own property.