{Shenandoah National Park originally posted by @usinterior - Traditional Monacan homeland} Happy ‪#NationalPublicLandsDay‬! I wanted to take this moment to talk about why we use the words “stolen” and “theft” when we talk about the acquisition of Indian land on this account. The idea that Indian lands - the lands out of which America's ‪#publiclands‬ were carved - were won through Right of Conquest, not making it theft, is an argument I hear a lot.

This is a misconception.

First of all, Right of Conquest, the idea that territory won in war belongs to the victor, is deeply unethical. I think most people agree that just because you have the power to take something, doesn't give you the right to it. However, even if you accept Right of Conquest, that isn't how Native land was taken by the United States. Land was acquired through Treaties between the U.S. and sovereign Indigenous nations, not through war.

Legal from a technical standpoint, these treaties were often coercive, misleading, or forced upon tribes. Translators and negotiators would often lie, cheat, intimidate, and even forge marks to get these treaties. On top of this, the U.S. failed to hold up their side of the treaties - letting settlers on land reserved for the tribes or not providing payment promised - effectively voiding the treaties. ‪

Public Lands‬ are part of this history of broken treaties. Many public lands have restrictions that result in tribes being unable to practice their treaty rights or encroaching on resource sovereignty. Military campaigns against tribes were mostly used to undercut treaties, to force tribes into signing treaties, or to "pacify" tribes who had returned to their lands after treaties were broken. The military was used in conjunction with outright lying, cheating, and intimidation by political representatives of the U.S. to Indian nations to underhandedly acquire land. This - even in its own time - is land acquisition through theft, not through conquest.

Language and history are important. When Native people say "theft" they actually mean theft. The way these lands were illegally taken has political consequences today, so let's be accurate.