What are the other implication in selling ancestral lands.?

Question

what went wrong with the purchase the lands

Answer 1

First the cultural issue was about land ownership. Consider:

Take the city or town that you live in. Suddenly strangers arrive with guns, soldiers and tanks. Once established, we tell you that you have agreed to sell us the air. We point to an object signed by someone living on the other side of town.

You pretty much ignore the situation as you know air is free. Besides how can someone you don't know sign away your rights?

That was much of the problem. The Native Americans felt that territory could be controlled by the tribe, individual ownership of the plot of land was inconceivable.Further, Chiefs did not equate to Kings and did not speak for or have the authority to give land away.

The Trail of Tears resulted when a few Cherokee chiefs "touched the pen" and the American government attempted to remove all the Cherokee tribes. The Supreme Court found for the tribes but the ruling was ignored.

Often, treaties contained flowery phrases such as "As long as the grass grows and the rivers run." They lasted as long as it took to find gold on the land or a new route for a railroad. Congress even unilaterally reduced the promised  payments but expected the tribes to keep their end of the deal.

Under the 1887 Dawes Act, land owned by the Native Americans could be put into trust and administered by the federal government. In theory, the land was distributed among the individual Native Americans in 160 acres parcels. Under the trust system and they would then receive monthly payment for the land's use. The land was then leased to ranchers, loggers and miners. The money collected from these leases is supposed to be returned to the Native Americans through trust payments.

Some 47 million (or 11 million) acres is in trust. An even great amount was 'bought" by the federal government then sold to settlers. This was often at a bare fraction of it's true value.

Payments are made under the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) program. Payments run about 450,000,000 (or 500,000,000) dollars each year. There are a reported 300,000 people getting these payments with another 47,000 eligible (or 50,000) but the government doesn't have the addresses.

There are now lawsuits intended to force the government to account for the money. The courts have ruled that accounting has been very poor and payments have not been accurate. The plaintiffs argue that some 10 Billion dollars is owed to 500,000 Native Americans. The government estimates there are only 300,000 Native Americans involved.

Complicating the process is that many records since 1887 have been lost. However a sub-committee of Congress stated:

"While mismanagement of the Indian trust fund has been reported for more than a century, there is no evidence that either the (BIA) or the Department of Interior has undertaken any sustained or comprehensive effort to resolve glaring deficiencies,"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002...

It is possible for tribes to purchase land that was once their and then place it in trust for the tribe.In some cases this has resulted in "smokeshops, and fireworks stands located on small parcels of tribal land. They operate with a different set of regulations then apply to stores right next to them.