| Native Americans believe they are closely linked with | | | | highest bidder as a labor hand for a certain period of |
| the land and everything that grows on the land or | | | | time, usually a week. At the end of the week, the |
| lives on the land. Because of this belief, the idea of | | | | Indian would be paid in alcohol, would be arrested |
| "owning" land did not exist among the Native | | | | again on Monday, and the cycle would start |
| Americans. They lived off the land, but did not | | | | over.Another strategy used by the Europeans to |
| consider that they owned it. This is not to say that | | | | acquire land was by purchasing it from the Native |
| they shared the land with other tribes, because they | | | | Americans. Whether through devious actions or |
| did establish territorial rights to certain parts of | | | | ignorance of Indian ways, the Europeans would get a |
| America among the many tribes. Intrusion into | | | | few tribal members to sell the land, which caused |
| another tribe's territory was considered an invasion | | | | conflict within the tribe. For example, Tecumseh, a |
| and was often met with warfare.Before contact with | | | | Shawnee, protested the sell of his tribal lands in the |
| Europeans, most of the Native Americans lived in | | | | following way:The white people have no right to take |
| hunter/gatherer communities composed of small | | | | the land from the Indians, because they had it first; it |
| populations of people. A few tribes had settled into | | | | is theirs. They may sell, but all must join. Any sale not |
| farming communities before the coming of | | | | made by all is not valid. The late sale is bad. It was |
| Europeans, but these were rare. The Native | | | | made by a part only. Part do not know how to sell. It |
| Americans set up their community with an equal | | | | requires all to make a bargain for all (Hurtado, |
| division of labor between men and women. Women | | | | 171).Another land issue that caused conflict within the |
| controlled the use of the land and men controlled the | | | | Native American peoples was the policy of removing |
| distribution of goods from the land. Goods were | | | | Indians from their traditional homelands onto |
| considered community property with the whole tribe | | | | reservations. A good example of this is the removal |
| sharing in equal parts.Before contact with Europeans, | | | | of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia into |
| land tenure and use favored women. Inheritance | | | | present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee newspaperman |
| passed through the maternal side and women | | | | Elias Boudinot, although initially opposing removal, |
| controlled the use of the land. The Iroquois women | | | | came "to believe that removal was necessary to |
| also controlled the community's store of goods, in | | | | save the Cherokee nation" (Hurtado 207). After the |
| addition to farming in female cooperatives. The | | | | Cherokees had been removed to Oklahoma, |
| Northwest Tlingit women handled any money in the | | | | opponents of the removal "killed Boudinot and other |
| tribe, as men were thought to be foolish in their | | | | Indians who had signed the removal treaty" (Hurtado |
| spending habits. The Tlingit women also controlled | | | | 207).After all the Native Americans had been |
| any fur transactions. In nomadic tribes, such as the | | | | removed unto reservations, the federal government |
| Plains Indians, women owned and distributed all the | | | | passed the Dawes Act of 1887. This law divided the |
| domestic goods, while men controlled all items relating | | | | reservation lands into sections for private ownership, |
| to hunting and warfare.When the Europeans arrived | | | | thus destroying the concept of sharing lands |
| in America, they were shocked by the Native | | | | communally. Because of the Dawes Act, the Indians |
| Americans' matriarchal and matrilineal system. The | | | | lost two of every three acres held before 1887. The |
| European conquerors began to chain the Native | | | | purpose of this law was to halt the Indians' nomadic |
| Americans to the land through farming. As with the | | | | lifestyle by turning them into farmers.Since Native |
| Twa tribe, many Native American tribes were | | | | American peoples had no concept of land ownership, |
| subjected to the Spanish system of encomienda, | | | | the European invaders considered the land to be up |
| which remained in effect in New Mexico between | | | | for grabs. The Europeans used a variety of ways to |
| 1600 and 1680. This Spanish system "provided for | | | | gain control of the land. They used deception on |
| the involuntary seizure of a percentage of each | | | | Montezuma. They ignored Indian political practices by |
| Pueblo farmer's crop every year to support Spanish | | | | having a few Indians sell the lands. And when all else |
| missionary, military, and civil institutions" (Folsom | | | | failed, the federal government passed laws to |
| 14).The Native Americans in California territory were | | | | relocate the Indians and resorted to warfare if they |
| also induced into forced labor. The Spanish, and later | | | | resisted.BibliographyFolsom, Franklin. Indian Uprising on |
| the Mexicans, occupying this territory established | | | | the Rio Grande. University of Mexico Press, |
| legislation that authorized the arrest of any Indian for | | | | 1996.Hurtado, Albert, Peter Iverson, and Thomas |
| drunkenness, or even just loitering, upon the | | | | Paterson, editors. Major Problems in American Indian |
| complaint of any citizen. Once the Indian was | | | | History: Documents and Essays. Houghton Mifflin |
| arrested, he or she must pay a fine or be sold to the | | | | Company Collegiate Division, 2000. |