Land

April 25, 2010 – 8:45 pm

A sign said that Queen Anne gave some land in my neighborhood to a church in 1705. How was this land hers to give away? In 1705, Queen Anne lived 3,000 miles away in England, across the Atlantic Ocean.

The answer is that Dutch traders had purchased Manhattan Island from Native Americans  in 1626 for trade goods worth $24. Manhattan Island was owned by Europeans after that.

Some say the island was not sold by the Manhattoe Indians who lived here, but by the Canarsie Indians, who lived somewhere else and only traded here. Was Manhattan Island sold by Indians who did not own it?

I heard that Europeans in various parts of the city bought the same land over and over from the Indians. There is no record that anybody thought this was odd.

I also heard that Native Americans believed that land was something that could not be bought, sold, or owned. Then why were they selling land? Is it possible they did not understand these land deals?

Indians used to be called ‘redskins.’  Maybe Native Americans were called ‘Indians’ because Henry Hudson’s ship, which sailed into New York harbor on September 11, 1609, was looking for a way through to the Indies in the Pacific Ocean. Henry Hudson never discovered the Northwest Passage, but Native Americans are still called Indians.

What about the idea that the land is our home and is not a commodity, a thing we can buy and sell? Maybe that concept has lost its meaning, because nowadays we frequently see space being bought and sold. We don’t live off the land anymore. We work, in exchange for which we buy food, a place to live, all other goods and services – and land, too. Houses and land are called ‘real estate.’

Adjusted for inflation, the $24 the Indians received for Manhattan Island is now calculated to be worth approximately $72. But according to a website called www.straightdope.com, land values in Manhattan have increased ‘from a half cent per acre in 1626 to $827,000 per acre today, an increase of roughly 17 billion percent.’ You would have to pay from $2,000 to $3,000+ per month to rent an apartment in Manhattan today. Most people don’t have enough money to live in Manhattan.

But the Native American population today in the United States is trapped in the most abject poverty, sometimes on reservations without access to education, job opportunities, and basic medical services. Mainstream Americans obviously lack respect for indigenous peoples, their religion, and their culture. Isn’t this discrimination a form of racial prejudice? You would think that this social inequity would have been redressed a long time ago.

I hear that about 400 Native Americans still live in New York City, the same number who used to live here in 1626. In addition to these few Native Americans, the population of New York City has grown to between eight and nine million people.

Some Questions for Discussion:

(1)   Have you ever bought land? If so, how much did you pay for it?

(2)   Have you ever bought a house? If so, how much did you pay for it?

(3)   Do you think it is important to own your own house?

(4)   Do you think it is important to remain mobile, able to come and go, or would you rather ‘put down roots’ by owning a house?

(6)   We hear this expression: ‘living in harmony with the land.’ The Native Americans lived in a sustainable way hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Why do you think they allowed the Europeans to take over their land?

(7) Commercially minded people do not think of living in harmony with the land. They want to develop the land. Do you think there might be any middle ground between these two points of view?

Photo and Text © 2010 by Barbara A. English            All rights reserved.