Today in Labor History May 16, 1862: President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. As a result, 84 million acres of public (i.e., Indigenous) lands were opened to settlers. Any citizen who had never taken up arms against the U.S. (i.e., northerners), including women and freed slaves, could file for a federal land grant. Consequently, great swaths of Native American land and natural resources were usurped by settlers. Additionally, much of the land was acquired by businesses, not individual citizens. For example, most of the rainforest west of Portland, Oregon was acquired by the Oregon Lumber Company through illegal claims under the act.

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