The idea that “discovery” of this continent by Europeans gave European countries ownership of Native lands is a myth that has been very detrimental to Indian and Alaska Native nations. Countering this false idea has been part of Indian life for generations. Yet many government officials, including judges, still believe this nonsense, partly because it is repeated so often. Like all racist ideas, this one is simply not true. The Europeans did not discover this land, and they did not gain ownership of Native land by reason of discovery.
The idea that “discovering” nations gained ownership of Native lands when they arrived has never been accepted as a legal rule in United State law or in international law. It has always been the law of this country, even in colonial times, that the “discovering” country did not gain ownership of Native land but only the exclusive right to buy or acquire the land if the Native owners should be willing to part with it. Chief Justice John Marshall understood this and made it part of federal law in 1832. Indian nations held the full rights of ownership to their lands, and in many situations, these rights were recognized and guaranteed (not granted) by treaties with the United States.
In international law, discovery gave rights only to uninhabited lands and did not diminish the legal rights of Indians and Alaska Natives to lands and resources. The so-called “discovery doctrine” should not be used to justify any such diminishment today. "Discovery" of this continent, inhabited entirely by Indian and other Native nations, gave only the exclusive right to buy the land from the Native owners if they were willing to sell. This right is now called the right of pre-emption. This right governed the relationships among “discovering” nations, and had no effect on the land rights of Native nations.
The Supreme Court has accepted and reaffirmed this body of law even in modern cases.
Indian nations own millions of acres of land today, most of it lands that they have always owned and lived on. Obviously, they did not lose their lands upon discovery. As flawed and unjust as federal Indian law is, it generally protects Indian land ownership and does not regard “discovery” as taking away these lands.
It is disturbing to see statements by some Indian advocates saying that the “doctrine of discovery” actually took away or denied Indian land rights as a matter of law. If this were true as a matter of law, Indian nations would have enormous problems maintaining any form of ownership of their present lands and would seldom or never be able to make claims for the return of lands illegally taken. Fortunately, the doctrine of discovery did not, as a matter of law, actually take away any Indian land, and we should not say that it did.
The “doctrine of discovery” is undoubtedly racist and unjust. It’s main point is to claim - falsely - that Native nations lost their land rights to the “discovering” countries. But this is not true as a matter of law or as a matter of history, and we should be sure not to suggest that it is true. Despite this, we can and should continue to attack the “doctrine of discovery” as a completely false and unjust idea that has no place in our law or our country.
http://indianlaw.org/content/native-lands-were-not-lost-discovery
i wasn’t going to get into this because i love watching white ignorance play itself and i’m not posting this for this white dude who got his bleached history lessons down cold. you can continue in your ignorant bliss mayoboy, this is for everyone else.
the idea that the lands of the natives were up for grabs and thus it was legal for the settlers to just come up on it and take has been disproven time and time again but the racist idea persists. why? whiteness. whiteness is built on lies and so we shouldn’t be surprised by this.
know this, “vacuum domicilium” is the doctrine the settlers adopted and it has been ruled to be illegal. “vacuum domicilium” states that the settlers merely thought the land was vacant, they can take and call it their own. fuckouttahere. nope. those fuckers even tried to pass this fucking logic off:
Native land is wasteland or a savage wilderness that no one owns, uses, or wants and is available for the taking by colonists—therefore any aboriginal interests in the land are extinguished as soon as British subjects settle the area.
Native peoples have no concept of property, do not claim any property rights, or are incapable of owning land.
Christians have a right to take land from non-Christians because heathens lack property rights.
http://tinyurl.com/zm9xvay
first of all natives always maintained both political and cultural rights to their native lands. always. they never relinquished it. not one time. second, fuck you with this “no concept of property.” the fuck you think they were able to split land amongst tribes? you can’t do that without a base concept of land, property and ownership. lastly being of another religion doesn’t give you the right to steal shit from people.
Why do these lies persist? The act colonization requires the defaming of those who are being colonized as a means of justifying the criminal acts when questioned. If you can convince the populace that natives had no concept of land ownership, then your theft was not theft after all. If you can convince the world that natives had no advance thinking or practices in any area then you can justify forcing your way in and destroying their culture. Moreover if you convince yourself and everyone else that natives were just savages then you can justify your actions of raping, plundering and murdering them and that’s the bigger goal. That’s the crime that most important to cover and recast however to do you must do those smaller acts of defamation.
i could go on but you get the gist. when your education comes via the americanized “educational system” which primarily focuses on white western malehood with much willingness to lie, twist the facts, spout half truths and worse, you’ll end up like this fucker right here.
A Critical Pedagogy for Native American Education Policy
American Indian Nations: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
In the Courts of the Conquerer: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (ReVisioning American History)
and any excuse to post this gif is always welcomed.
