By JODI SUMMERS
The first Native Americans are believed to have arrived in North America between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago through a land bridge across northeastern Siberia into Alaska. It is said that early Native Americans were in a peaceful harmony with their environment. They perceived time as cyclical and organized their existence around the change of seasons. Many native groups are said to have moved their villages several times a year to follow seasonal food sources. Seasonal moves meant less-permanent architecture and a loose concept of land possession. Total and exclusive land ownership was simply not a Native American concept. Although a group might have the privilege of using a parcel of land for gathering plants or hunting game, seldom did a tribe or individual “own” a parcel of land.
The 1585 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh to the New World is responsible for the concept of land ownership. At the time of Raleigh’s arrival, approximately 10 million Native Americans were populating America north of Mexico.
The Europeans, who tended to live in one fixed place year round, had a different concept of land ownership. The Web site www.nativeamericans.com points out that “Most European saw themselves as separate from creation and adversaries of nature, ever struggling to conquer and subdue nature and force it to yield to their will. Native Americans saw themselves as one component of nature, sharing a living spirit that pervaded everything, animate (living) and inanimate (non-living) objects alike.”
The natives regarded the white colonialists as something of a marvel. They wore eccentric costumes, had beards, winged ships and wonderful technology — knives, guns, cannons, mirrors, earrings, kettles, and their silent but deadly germs. It was the Europeans’ cultural arrogance, coupled with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings, which troubled the Indians and changed their way of life forever.
As soon as the British arrived they began making land records of the Colonies. Those records later became our first states. To expedite the task, the British granted charters to large land companies, a.k.a. wealthy land speculators who lived in England. Those land companies — the London Company, Massachusetts Bay Company, Plymouth Company, and Virginia Company, among others — had the authority to issue land grants to individuals loyal to the crown.
British Land records prior to 1776 are primarily crown grants and proprietor records. According to author Stephen Seal, the proprietors worked as agents for the crown. When land was granted, the property boundaries were laid out in descriptive form — like deeds, with landmarks and other prominent identifying data. Many of those records survive in one form or another, whether they be patents, surveys or warrants.
Spain was the next country to stake property ownership in North America. By the late 1600s, Spain had laid claim to much of what is now the central and southwestern United States, as well as Florida. Spanish land records date back to 1763. They made several copies made of each document, one of which was sent to the Spanish archives in Seville.
The French bartered and traded much of their territory in North America, “The Louisiana Purchase,” being one of the best-known transactions. The Superior Council Records are the primary source of information on the French land-granting practices. This collection holds everything from mortgages to marriage contracts, civil and land suits.
By 1821, Mexico had claimed the land that we now know as Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and Utah. The Mexican government often granted land to its people in the form of a rancho — a grant more than 1,000 acres. Think Rancho de Sepulveda. They also used the headright system in Texas and in California. Records refer to empressario grants — large tracts given to land speculators to colonize entire towns.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence and the 13 colonies in the New World declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. While the Declaration of Independence contained no specific language on property rights, it is clarified in the Bill of Rights, an amendment to the United States Constitution, which upholds the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution of the United States is the old-est federal constitution currently in use.
It was George Mason, a wealthy Virginia planter, United States patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention who pressed for the addition of explicitly stated individual rights as part of the U.S. Constitution. Subsequently, the Bill of Rights refers to the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. Those amendments explicitly limit the federal government’s powers, protecting the rights of the people.
In May 1776, Mason wrote that “all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights... among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
After the States United on July 4, 1776, our government gave out federal patents to settlers who wanted to homestead land. All land records in the United States can be traced back to the patents, which were given by the government to the first landowners. The land records are the basis for property ownership in the United States.
You can read our current president’s most recent statement on property rights at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060623-10.html. (Jodi Summers is director of the investment division at Boardwalk Realty. For your real estate needs, , or call (310) 309-4219)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.