Native Americans
Native Americans like these were forced into signing treaties that claimed that they would not fight the whites as well as let whites pass safely through their land.
The Native Americans were gravely affected during the time of the Homestead Act. The government took their land and before they knew it their land was populated by homesteaders. Part of the homestead agreement was to cultivate the land leaving nothing for the previous residence to come back to. A homesteader wrote, “Not long after his arrival, an enterprising individual came driving by with a plow, and we hired him for a dollar to plow around the lot I had stepped off, 25 feet in front and 140 feet in depth. Before dusk we had a large wall premises, with a couple of people inside bedding. Now we felt doubly secure in our possession.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). Ten thousand people occupied a square mile with a tent and a square blocked off claimed their property. “Thousands of campfires sparked upon the dark bosom of the prairies as far as the eye could reach.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). The Homesteaders made camp quickly and shut out any Native Americans nearby. They would be pushed of their land and moved into reservations. “On the morning of April 23, a city of 10,000 people, 500 houses, and innumerable tents existed where 12 hours before was nothing but a broad expanse of prairies.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). In some cases homesteaders built cities with walls around them keeping Native Americans out.
To make it easy for Europeans to take Native Americans land they only considered limited land laws. An Anonymous writer wrote “But if, indeed, all these poor workingmen were destined to be in each other’s way in the cities, if they could not be given the means to support themselves and families by the work of their hands and to assist in producing general prosperity, then we might well shed hot tears at each incoming immigrant ship. If once the soil is free, then every honest working man who leaves his old home in order to lead a happier life in free air on this side of the ocean becomes a blessing to our republic, and we shall be able to welcome every immigrant ship with a thousand guns; for work gives abundance, and the more producing hands, the more wealth.” ("Anonymous: Work, Wealth, and Free Land" 339-340). Europeans thought they could trick Native Americans into signing treaties to claim their land so that they could expand into the West. Europeans went in knowing that the Native Americans lacked knowledge of what they were signing but persuaded them to sign the treaty in an unfair manner. Most of the treaties were negotiations that occurred without legal validations. No matter what the case was for a signing of a treaty the government then had permission to force the Native Americans out of their homelands and onto reservations. Native Americans were bribed, encouraged, or even self willing to converting to a European life style. They believed that if they pleased the Europeans that the Europeans would than leave them alone. The main goal for Native Americans "civilization" was to attract them away from their homelands.
Taken from http://www.lisarivero.com/2013/02/09/the-homestead-act-of-1862/