An important distinction to make here is that the indigenous people of North America did not own the land themselves before the Europeans came, they coexisted with the land and held spiritual connections with it. One reason why they thought it was a good idea to sign the land over in those treaties is because they thought the notion of any persons "owning" land was ridiculous - no one could own land since the Earth was it's own free spirit

(Not an expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong)

[–] themelm@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

Eh, varies tribe to tribe on the ownership thing and the "coexisted spiritual connections with the land" thing is damn near the Noble Savage stereotype. Which kinda infantilises natives. They were fully realised peoples who sometimes lived peacefully and sometimes fought brutal wars with each other over the land. And some of them probably lived in a good balance with nature for some time and some of them probably would have run into ecological crises of their own making.

[–] AmbientChaos@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 years ago

You should really do some more research. The federal government made false promises and deceived/abused the tribes involved in the forced removal. It was in no way an agreement made because "no one owned the land"