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