Ben and I read pages 309-312 in his text. We read about the Homestead Act, passed in 1862, which made land in the West available to any Homesteaders who wanted to farm it. We agreed that this was significant because it included women and Black Americans. However, we also noted that although this act gave the settlers 160 acres of land, that land often belonged to Indigenous people who held treaty rights to it. We read how the Great Plains proved valuable to farmers who were determined to make use of the land but noted that the farmers ultimately ended up losing money and blamed this loss due to high shipping fees, costs for supplies, and interest payments. Subject-specific vocabulary included the terms: homesteaders, grange, and cooperative. Ben asked to eat a snack during our session and worked on assembling Lego's while snacking.