The question touches on a complex interplay between indigenous cultures and European legal frameworks regarding land ownership. Many Indigenous tribes had a spiritual and communal relationship with the land, seeing themselves as stewards rather than owners in the Western sense. However, this does not imply that these lands could be outright taken without consequence. “Stolen” in this context refers to the forceful and often violent seizure of land by European settlers and governments, which ignored existing indigenous sovereignty, agreements, and treaties.
While Indigenous peoples may not have had written property deeds, they had well-established systems of land use and territorial boundaries respected and understood within and among tribes. The taking of land by settlers was often executed through coercive treaties, military force, or policies that completely disregarded these established systems. As a result, the term “stolen” captures the injustice felt by Indigenous populations due to the loss of their ancestral lands and the disruption of their traditional ways of life caused by the imposition of Western concepts of land ownership. Such acts were contrary to many agreements made between Indigenous peoples and the colonial or federal governments, highlighting a history of broken promises and legal violations.
