@chrisboulanger
Yes, I was discussing the homestead act as well.

It's a fine point, but I'll discuss it.
The Midwest is (modestly) separated from the mountain west and the coast by the lack of any other exploitable resource. With few exceptions, murderously gotten farmland is the only thing of value.

Mountain and coastal colonizers had other horrors to enact, but they weren't strictly limited to blood-for-land.
@RickiTarr