Land ownership Differences

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How could land be someone's property? The Native Americans believed that there was no such thing as land property. On the other hand, the Europeans claimed land ownership all over the world. The attitudes towards ownership of land differ tremendously. The Europeans believed that a one person had the right to own land, while the Indians had communal property.

The Indians believed that the land was for harvesting and hunting, therefore they didn't have to own the land to be able to use it and share it with the other members of their tribes. Although the Europeans believed the Indians to be savages, the Indians were very civilized people. According to Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, the Indians had roads, cities, trade networks, and other structures that indicated that they had complex societies. However complex their societies might have been, they firmly believed that the land could not be something that is owned by man. They had many policies on owning the right to use the land for hunting or harvesting. The harvests and the meat of the kills were for all the members of the tribes. Many believe that this communal or shared ownership of the land was the foundation of the economic life amongst the Indian tribes. "Few if any Indian societies were familiar with the idea of a fenced-off piece of land belonging forever to a single individual or family."1

The Europeans had no apprehension of the Indian's attitude towards property. The Europeans believed that the Indians were nomads and could not have settled communities, which also meant that the Indians were incapable of correctly using the land.thought that by claiming the land they were making the land better. They believed that by claiming the land they would be doing a better job m...

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...scovery of the America in Europe.

Although the Indians were more peaceful and probably more diplomatic people, they lost the war and with that they lost their land. The Indians had a society where no one went hungry; there

wasn't any poverty within the Indian tribes. There could have been hierarchies within the different tribes, but with harvest and hunt being common resources everyone was fed. On the other hand the Europeans came to the Americas strictly to make money. They established trading posts, made large monopolizing companies, and took the land away from the Indians. The Indians did not allow the Europeans, who later become the Americans, take the land without a fight. There were many battles and even a war for the land. Although the Indians fought for their land, their communal property was eradicated by the Europeans and the Americans fenced land owners.

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