Did We Steal The Land?

American Thinker 

At a recent Grammy Awards ceremony, Billie Eilish stated publicly that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” This statement implies that the United States was unlawfully created and, therefore, any national laws regarding the illegal entrance of aliens into the country are invalid. This is a very big issue. If the United States was unlawfully created (different from unfortunately created), a case could be made that the land that now comprises its sovereign borders should revert to the indigenous people then living within those boundaries, or in the alternative, be allowed to be claimed by majorities pouring into its undefended borders—a type of siege.

Was the United States lawfully created?

It was lawfully created if one accepts the premises of Western Civilization, Christianity, and the notion of advances in civilization. It is thought that indigenous American tribes existed in the continental United States for thousands of years. Some scholars put that number at 23,000 years. This occupancy consisted of hundreds of tribes with spheres of influence over certain lands, but not individual ownership of parcels of land. These tribes mostly existed at a subsistence level, with advanced skills in survival crops and surface-level metallurgy—especially gold and copper.

Western Civilization grew out of Greek and Roman thought and practices, combined with the introduction and acceptance of Christianity, and incorporated the notion of advancement over subsistence, including the development of the person morally and intellectually. Christianity encouraged the curious, the industrious, and the innovative as discoverers of God’s creation.

The Biblical notion of man’s fallen nature shrouds Western thinking, a constant swimming upstream as advances are developed and then debauched. The word “lawful” includes this moral component. What may be legal must also be lawful in the Christian belief system.

How can what is the continental United States be legally “discovered” if peoples are already living on the land?

The “Age of Discovery” (1400 AD–1600 AD) grew out of the disruption Muslims caused to European and Asian trade routes across Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and into China. These routes brought paper, gunpowder, and spices to Europe in return for wool, wine, and other commodities from Europe. When these routes became too dangerous or too highly taxed, other water and land routes were sought.

Spain and Portugal led the way as they searched for another land/water route to China. And so, in rapid succession, we get Columbus, da Gama, Magellan, and others—brave explorers trying to find new trade routes and instant wealth. The Old World eventually “discovers” the New. Perhaps, it was thought, this was even more significant than the routes themselves.

This, then, is the initial story. Foundational philosophy, administration, and law from pagan Greeks and Romans; the Roman acceptance of Christianity; the rise of the Roman Catholic Church in governance and inquiry; the clash of Muslim/Christian cultures; the genius of Chinese innovation and its seepage into the West; and the insatiable nature of man to discover more and improve the already found.

Pope Alexander VI, in 1493 AD, declared it lawful to “discover” inhabited lands and declared an International Doctrine of Discovery for any Christian prince to ownership, with occupancy rights granted to the indigenous. This Catholic international law was validated by our Supreme Court in 1823, but was rescinded by Pope Francis in 2023.

And now, the rest of the story.

The rest of the story is part factual history and part mystery. Different societies handle experiential knowledge differently. Scholars theorize why this is so, but a definitive answer as to “why?” is not possible. How did the Chinese come up with the earliest technology in the smelting process that moved societies from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age? What compelled Monks in the 800s AD to the backbreaking reclamation of arable land from the wetlands of England and Belgium? What compels one group of people to curiosity and innovation and another to subsistence?

Experiential knowledge is lived, understood, passed along, and improved over time. It took 1,000 years for the blast furnace technology of China to reach Sweden. By the time colonists reached American shores in Jamestown in 1607 and in Plymouth in 1620, colonists had working guns, pistols, fowlers, and tools that were traded to indigenous tribes for land and assistance. How the nearly-starving colonists in Virginia found bog ore and built the first iron works at Falling Waters in 1619 is a wonder.

What the early Christian communes brought to tribal lands in America was not just advanced tools. They brought the notion of individual ownership and responsibility. Land was traded, purchased, and ceded by treaty, and the records of these transactions were recorded and housed. Descent and conveyance, as evidenced by wills, go back to the ancient Egyptians and were codified in England by Henry VIII in 1540. The idea of owning property and leaving that property to heirs to be improved meant that generation after generation, rather than sameness, there was the chance for advancement.

If what Miss Eilish is saying at the Grammys can be translated as a reflection of man’s fallen nature regarding the treatment of the indigenous, she has a point. America includes some conquered and some confiscated land. The whole notion of nation-states grew out of the religious wars of the 17th century in Europe. Native Americans did not have these notions. In addition, America’s overarching foundational philosophy is the development of the person, not the development of the group.

And yet, as part of the mystery, in spite of some past practices, there is a sweetness of intention in the language in Article 3 of the Northwest Ordinance, passed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation in July 1787:

The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.

Miss Eilish deserves a response: the words “stolen land” are not accurate. The concept that what is legal must also be lawful (moral), however, is the basis of American civilization.