For European colonists arriving in New England, land was private property - a view irreconcilable with that of Native Americans.  In this profound and far-reaching presentation, Lance Young, chief of the Nemasket tribe, walked us through Native concepts of land as a living, breathing resource for the common good - and the devastating consequences of the clash of two conceptions of the land.  

Watch this recording of a uniquely important discussion of a topic fundamental to the history of New England, the fate of Native people, and the land today. 

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Lance Young is the chief sachem of the Nemasket Nation, Wolf Clan, and chairman of the Nemakset Tribal Council.  He is a 10th generation great-grandson of the squaw sachem Aime, daughter of the chief sachem Ousemequin Massasoit of the Pokanoket, father of Metacom King Philip. He is the director of marketing for a technology consulting firm.

Discussion readings

Virginia DeJohn Anderson, “King Philip's Herds: Indians, Colonists and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 4, October 1994. 

Anderson's account of livestock and animal husbandry illuminates the fundamental and irreconcilable differences in land use between Native Americans and the colonists settling New England. English settlers were determined to bring Native Americans into their lifestyle practices and customs, starting with King Philip and his herd of hogs. But the practice of keeping domestic animals became one of the most intolerable differences between the colonists and Native people. For the English, herds were critical to their success; by contrast, Native Americans had no concept of animal husbandry and the idea of using the land to keep creatures as livestock was alien. 

Anderson explains how and why domesticated animals presented an insurmountable number of problems from land use, property rights, subsistence practices and, ultimately, political authority. These profound differences culminated in King Philip's War, which signaled, in the short span of 45 years, the beginning of the end of Indigenous sovereign rights. 

James Warren Springer, "American Indians and the Law of Real Property in Colonial New England," American Journal of Legal History, vol. 30, no. 1, January 1986. 

James Springer focuses on colonial New England's concept of real property as it was applied to Native Americans. He calls out the policies that the colonial government, examines the rights and the conditions related to land ownership that were granted to Native lands. He has a particular interest in understanding how indigenous property rights and considerations were both like and different from those of the 17th-century English.

Suggested reading

Christine DeLucia, Memory Lands: King Philip's War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018).