“A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers here on its bank. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry.”

- Santana, Chief of the Kiowas, 1867

What is the likely cause of the author's woes?

That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States ... shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands

-United States Senate, Homestead Act, 1862

One goal of the Homestead Act was to __________________.