This land was our land, now it is your land.   This Page Note fully cited at this time

What is Property?

              “Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons.”(Wikipedia) 

Modern law recognizes two kinds of property: real property, which includes land and permanent   structures built on it; and personal property which is essentially anything that a person can pack up          and move somewhere else. The distinction between owning land and owning things is an important        one, and the different ways in which American Indians and European settlers interpreted it helps to   explain the conflicts that arose between them. Essentially, where Europeans saw land as private    property, Indians saw it as the sum of its uses and a shared resource. (Walbert) 3.3

The indigenous people of North America believed the land was a gift from the creator, that land was not property, but a resource to be used to extract resources from.  Within a given territory, there was not direct ownership of land, instead the land was held communally, with benefits and burdens shared by all the members of that group. The land did not belong to the people, the people belonged to the land.  All things were connected and the indigenous people felt highly emotional attachment to the living Earth, in a sense they did not live on it, but in and through it, were part of it, as were their ancestral dead.

These kinds of views and habits of land use contrasted sharply with prevailing European views of land ownership. In European law, land (i.e. real estate or territory) is allocated through strict economic modes of transfer; for example, conveyances such as sale, lease, assignment, mortgage, deed, and contract that require the establishment of clear, inflexible and demarked boundaries, Also explicit in the European concept of land use is the recognition of ownership. In short, land is a commodity that is parceled out through conveyances, for a specified value in money or its equivalent, and then regarded as “owned ”or property by an individual, groups of individuals, or some other sociopolitical or economic unit. Essentially, it is property that can be purchased, sold, or otherwise transferred.

The distinction between individual or group ownership of land, as understood by the Europeans invaders and the indigenous people and how ownership of the land was transferred to Europeans is the focus of this essay. Understanding how the Europeans colonist and the New Americans acquired land from the indigenous people of North America, reflects the concepts and fundamental beliefs that shaped the creation of America and are still prevalent today.

Secotan Village Showing Space Utilization In Theodor de Bry, Americae pars decima Openheim, 1619, as Indian village of Secotan. Rare Book and Special Collections Division The people of Secotan lived in permanent villages near today's North Carolina Outer Banks. Like the northern Algonquians, they farmed collectively in the growing season and dispersed into family units to hunt during the colder months. The engraving, based on a drawing made by John White in the 1580s, shows careful management and use of the land. Crops include tobacco and pumpkins, corn in three stages of growth, and sunflowers, while domesticated deer graze in the adjoining woods. The buildings include family units and storehouses for the surplus corn. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/1492/america.html

The Doctrine of Discovery and Occupation of the Americas

"No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…"

This idea, which is a bedrock of American democracy, is from the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was completed in 1787. That same year, the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which created the first organized territory out of the region that is today Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Among other regulations, the ordinance set forth a guiding principle for the treatment of Native Americans and their lands: 

"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their land and property shall never be taken without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed."

It seems astonishing that a country founded upon the ideal of "life, liberty, and property" could move from a policy of "good faith" toward the Native Americans to one of complete domination in the space of one generation. In order to understand how such a contradiction could occur, it is necessary to go back in time almost seven centuries before the American Revolution.

In 1095, at the beginning of the Crusades, Pope Urban II issued an edict-the Papal Bull Terra Nullius (meaning empty land). It gave the kings and princes of Europe the right to "discover" or claim land in non-Christian areas. This policy was extended in 1452 when Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Romanus Pontifex, declaring war against all non-Christians throughout the world and authorizing the conquest of their nations and territories. These edicts treated non-Christians as uncivilized and subhuman, and therefore without rights to any land or nation. Christian leaders claimed a God-given right to take control of all lands and used this idea to justify war, colonization, and even slavery.

By the time Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492, this Doctrine of Discovery was a well-established idea in the Christian world. When he reached the Americas, Columbus performed a ceremony to "take possession" of all lands "discovered," meaning all territory not occupied by Christians. Upon his return to Europe in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the bull Inter Cetera, granting Spain the right to conquer the lands that Columbus had already "discovered" and all lands that it might come upon in the future. This decree also expressed the Pope's wish to convert the natives of these lands to Catholicism in order to strengthen the "Christian Empire."

In 1573 Pope Paul II issued the papal bull Sublimis Deus, which denounced the idea that Native Americans "should be treated like irrational animals and used exclusively for our profit and our service," and Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) formally excommunicated anyone still holding Indian slaves. By this time, however, the Doctrine of Discovery was deeply rooted and led nonetheless to the conquest of non-Christian lands and people in every corner of the world. Although the U.S. was founded on freedom from such tyranny, the idea that white people and Christians had certain divine rights was nevertheless ingrained in the young nation's policies. The slave trade, for example, and centuries of violence against black people depended upon the idea that non-Whites were less than human. The theft of Native American lands required a similar justification.

Whether called the Doctrine of Discovery or later Manifest Destiny, the principles that stimulated European thirst for land have been disastrous for Native Americans and many others both in the America who lost life, liberty and property as the result of European expansionism. The history of Religion, especially Christian law helps us to understand how our leaders-many considered heroes and role models today-undertook monstrous acts in the name of liberty. This insight into the prevailing ideas of the day, however, does not excuse their behavior. Some may have truly been misled by the ideals of Christian discovery, but others acted knowingly out of self-interest, greed and bigotry. Even as far back as Columbus, however, there were religious and political leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, who knew better and worked against racism, colonization and slavery.