Sooners were settlers of Oklahoma who earne a part in the Homestead Act, giving each 160 acres to farm on. The term Sooners was used to describe settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands, located in the current state of Oklahoma, before President Benjamin Harrison officially proclaimed them open to settlement with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 on March 2, 1889. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of the Indian Appropriation Act, which stated that no one should be allowed to enter and occupy the land prior to the opening time and that such people would be denied rights to illegally-claimed land.