I guess this belongs here..I'm not sure....

[pamsback]

As to the federal government owning land:  Who paid for the Louisiana Purchase and who owned it until it was settled? 

Oh Wilma! I could SO get in trouble answerin this one................................................

The Federal gov't ought not to own land or property except post offices,
Federal courts, or military posts.   In the first place, it was never intended for the
Fed's to be in the land business, or any other business for that matter.  Instead,
it ought to be state land or privately owned.

Actually the government owning it is what has kept it from being destroyed, I am a supporter of national parks and preserves. If that is what it takes to save it so be it.

[Wilma]

Pam, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble, but if it weren't for the federal government, we wouldn't be the big nation we are today.  Part of us would be French, part Mexican, part Russian.  Who else was trying to get a piece of us?

[pamsback]

Lol I was thinkin about the REAL owners......which was NOT the french OR the spanish! 

[Wilma]

You're right of course, but if we hadn't done it, another nation would have.  I wonder what it would be like if the Indians had kept and developed it.  Could they have done it without the technology that white man brought with him?

[flintauqua]

The feds are not supposed to own any lands.  

What founding or subsequent document states this?

[pamsback]

Oh god.......you had to ask me that.....LOL Actually strange as this seems I was thinkin about that very thing on the way home from town this morning. I was lookin around at the country and the woods......ask Mom, where I live is really rural...there are a lot of people but it's basically a rural county, small towns few and far between. I got to thinkin about ecology and the environment which led me to what it was like here a couple hundred years ago which led me to thinkin about the colonization which led me to thinkin about the way europe was when the first people came from there. The way it was HERE when they got here....now bear with me yall and listen and think beFORE you jump down my throat.

We had two seperate continents with two seperate kinds of civilizations. Natives had been here just as long as europeans had been in europe basically. We had two seperate systems with SOME similarities such as farmers etc. When ...take for instance the English.....left Britain to come here it was a tenant landlord system there. Various "industries" had so polluted the Thames and other rivers that they were dead...this is like 250 300 years ago mind you....what forest was left was OWNED as a private hunting preserve by the monarchy...you could be KILLED if you got caught "poaching the kings game" even if your family was starving. France and Spain were really no different. Europe was a polluted disease ridden mess.

When they landed here....a continent that had been inhabited JUST as long.....there were virgin forests, clear sweet water full of various aquatic life, game everywhere, clean air, tall grass prairies, and there were PEOPLE, some lived in towns and farmed, some were nomadic...they lived WITH their land instead on ON their land.They had no immunity to european diseases because those diseases did not EXIST here. Filth causes those diseases. The land was PART of them not something to be used up and moved on from. Even you hardcore "the europeans were the best thing that ever happened to this place" people know that is the truth. Whether you will admit it to yourselves or anybody else is an altogether different subject. Admit it or not those people WERE makin use of THEIR land in the way they thought was right. They WERE developing it in their OWN way. Now maybe they would not have made the same use of it as the europeans even NOW. But think about the way this land was then after MORE than a thousand years of indigenous settlement and think of how it is now after only 300 years of european settlement use and abuse.

Technology has teeth....it chews things and people up and spits them out all used up. I think we ALL would've been better off if the europeans had adopted the NATIVE way instead of forcing the european way on the natives.
Now before CERtain people crawl up my ass....this is MY opinion.....I don't care if you agree with me or not. Wilma asked a question and I answered it the way I was thinkin. Now chew away or not it makes no difference to me

[Roma Jean Turner]

I learn a lot from you Pam.  Thanks. 

[Wilma]

Pam, you are right, of course, but knowing my ancestry besides the Indian, who would I be now if the Mayflower had sunk on it's way over here.  Perhaps I would still be hiding in the hills of Tennessee, but if Europeans hadn't colonized, the Cherokees would never had been moved to Oklahoma.  Actually, Oklahoma wouldn't be Oklahoma either.  Oil wouldn't have been discovered because there wouldn't be any need for it.   The gold and silver would still be in the ground, also, because it had no value to the natives.  Settling and developing the Americas was inevitable because of who the Europeans were.  There is a whole world of discussion in "What if?" but we have to live with what is and make the best of it.

[frawin]

We live in an area that has the 2nd largest Indian/Native American Population in the United States. I have worked with lots of full blooded Indians, because of my wife's Indian Descent my kids were involved in Operation Eagle, which is an Indian sponsored youth program. The indiians I have been around have never compliained about the life they live today or about the Europeans taking over. Many of the Indians in Oklahoma are well educated, have good homes, good Jobs, have or are sending their children to College, they own busineses, are Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and other professional people.
When I started with Phillips 40 years ago the Chairman of the Board and CEO was a full blooded Cherokee and was the Principal Cheif of the Cherokee Nation, his name was W.W. "Bill" Keeler.
All of the Indian Nations in Oklahoma are very prosperous, they own lots of Casinos, employ lots of their people as well as others and donate lots of money for civic projects. The Cherokees netted $139Million last year in their business operations. I think all of the Nations are very prosperous in their business operations and they use those profits to the benefit of their people.
In summary I don't think the Native Americans of today would give up the life they live in Oklahoma to go back and live like they did 300 years ago.

[frawin]

I forgot to mention that W.W. Bill Keeler was Bud Adams, that owns the Tennessee Titans Uncle. The first Mrs Boots Adams was a Keeler.