Law Commons^™

Individual Aboriginal Rights, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

When Whites first came to North America, they encountered an indigenous population in relative balance with the land. It was not a perfect harmony, but was, nonetheless, capable of enduring indefinitely. Regardless of episodic instability caused by erosion, over-hunting, or deforestation, the distinguishing socio-economic facts were that the native peoples did not treat the land as a commodity or freely exploitable resource, they were not preoccupied with economic growth or personal gain, and they did not believe in human domination over the rest of the world. Instead, their central beliefs were balance and reciprocity. How were these subsistence communities and …