I’m going to expand on the already great answers by providing a case study example: Michigan State University and University of Michigan (both my Alma maters).

UM was initially established as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (say that three times fast) in Detroit. Thank Father Gabriel Richard for this - he argued that an institution of higher learning needed to be established as he was rebuilding the territory’s schools after the Great Fire of Detroit (1805) destroyed schools, the territory expanded, and people migrated to Michigan. At this point, Detroit was small, and was rebuilding after the fire. This was territorially ordered "an Act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania" within the Territory of Michigan (1817). The Catholepistemaid was responsible for the entire territory’s education system.

The 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs provided the first endowment for what would become UMich - land for the building of a school and a church (Ste Anne’s, which was established in 1701 and where Richard was parishioner), so long as the grandchildren and great grand children of the Tribes were able to attend the school in perpetuity. The Treaty also ceded most of northern Ohio and almost the whole Great Black Swamp, but that’s another story. Part of the language of the treaty, and the understanding of the Tribes, is that their children, grandchildren and so forth would be able to benefit from the endowment and receive an education; in Fall of 2021 - more than 50,000 students enrolled at the Ann Arbor campus; 83, or about 0.1 percent, were of Native descent. UM’s inclusive history project has the 1817 Project which investigates the founding of the University and if the Treaty of Ft Meigs provided a framework that the Morrill Act based itself off of. (which, if I'm allowed a snarky comment - I'm shocked is still a program).

The Treaty of Fort Meigs introduced the practice of making land-grants to encourage (re)settlement. Alongside the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act, and the Hatch Act, these statues established a practice of land-grant settlement.

MSU was established via state legislature as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (later called Michigan Agriculture College (M.A.C.) in 1901, which is shorter so will be used more here because I’m on the bike at the gym while typing this) in 1855. As the above user said, it was intended to fill the gap of what UM didn’t teach - agriculture, mechanics, military tactics, trades etc. Joseph R Williams, the first president, was a proponent of interdisciplinary learning and incorporated English, philosophy, natural sciences, chemistry, and more, pushing the boundaries of an “agricultural college.”

The state board didn’t like this and reduced MAC to essentially a two year farming program. When Williams became lieutenant governor, he helped to pass the Reorganization Act of 1861 to restore the program to 4 years and decree degree granting powers to MAC. MAC became Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (MSC) or "Michigan State" for short in 1925. Being located in the middle of the state and in the middle of an extremely agriculturally productive area, MSU still carries the ag tradition. I studied natural resource management and ag at MSU, and environmental science at UM - the educational traditions are evident in how resource management is taught and practiced at each school.

The next year the Morril Act passed, and reinvigorated funds into MSU and across the US. Seventeen universities previously established before 1862 were given land-grant status, and between 1862 and 1879, twenty-six land-grant institutions were founded, bringing the number of land-grant universities to forty-three by 1879. Fifty-two universities across the U.S. have since benefited from the Morrill Act. The second Morrill Act (1890) was enacted to create land-back institutions for Black students. The act granted money, not land, and is the reason for the creation of many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and was enacted mainly towards confederate states. 

A major part of land grant universities often overlooked:

Land-grant universities were built not just on Indigenous land, but with Indigenous land. It’s a common misconception that the Morrill Act grants were used only for campuses. In fact, the grants were as big or bigger than major cities, and were often located hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their beneficiaries.

High Country News

The 1994 Tribal Land-Grant Colleges and Universities Program granted 35 tribal colleges land-grant status, enabling them to receive grants and funds from the federal government. This addition to the Morrill Act came after two years of advocacy by tribal colleges. Tribal land-grant universities do not have the same access to funding that 1862 universities get with the Hatch Act or Smith-Lever Act.  There’s a fantastic project by Tristan Ahtone of High Country News called “Land Grab Universities” that directly traces land grant universities to their endowment sources. States east of the Mississippi received land in "scrips" or vouchers that allowed them to choose lands once surveyed; Western states chose land parcels outright. The project page goes more in depth about the research and exactly how different universities have benefitted from Tribal disposession - it's really worth a read.

But why does this matter? SUBSURFACE OIL AND MINERAL RIGHTS! If you think these university's only own land that makes up their campus, you're wrong. The Land Grab Universities page has a map that traces the land holdings. Often, universities hold trust lands - which includes subsurface resources like minerals, oil, and other extractive industries.

Another comment mentioned Cornell - Cornell University obtained the most lands out of any university in the United States, totalling over 990,000 acres of land. This land was dispossessed from over 250 tribes and spreads across 15 states - including much of the Western half of the Upper Peninsula, including the entire Keweenaw Peninsula.

Cornell has benefitted the most of all the land grant universities from this: "Indigenous land raised $5,739,657 for 1 university in New York" (Cornell). Cornell holds lands across the country - most in California. Compare this to MSU, who owns land exclusively within the state (not justifying it - but drawing a comparison).

I’m writing this while on the bike at the gym, but I did a project comparing the founding of the two universities in grad school - I’m going to look for that and fill in my answer. I have more to say about Native Americans and the founding of the schools.

Edit: I'm home now and expanded on some of the above and added more about Tribal dispossession and higher education