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Tomahawk rights — or tomahawk claims, also called cabin rights — were an informal process utilized by early white settlers of the Appalachian and
Old Northwest The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...
(Ohio, Michigan, etc) frontiers in the mid- to late 18th century to establish priority of ownership to newly occupied land. The claimant typically
girdled Girdled identifies various animal species: {{TOC right Girdled lizards Lizards from the genus '' Cordylus''. * Angolan girdled lizard (''Cordylus angolensis''), also known as the Angolan spiny-tailed lizard * Black girdled lizard (''Cordylus niger ...
several trees near the head of a
spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
or other prominent site, then
blazed Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A bla ...
the bark of one or more of them with his
initials In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
or name.


Tomahawk rights

Land bounties had been promised by colonial officials to all those who had served in the provincial forces during the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
(1754-63), but for those who could not qualify for such bounties, the practice grew up on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers of taking possession of unoccupied land without authority and establishing "tomahawk claims" which were widely respected among the earliest pioneers. To claim tomahawk rights, the claimant typically
girdled Girdled identifies various animal species: {{TOC right Girdled lizards Lizards from the genus '' Cordylus''. * Angolan girdled lizard (''Cordylus angolensis''), also known as the Angolan spiny-tailed lizard * Black girdled lizard (''Cordylus niger ...
several trees near the head of a
spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
, then
blazed Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A bla ...
the bark of one or more of them with their
initials In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
or name. Tomahawk rights gave the settler no
legal title Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
unless followed by occupation or a warrant and a patent secured from the
land office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...
. But the Tomahawk rights were quite generally recognized by the early settlers, and many of them were purchased cheaply by other settlers who did not want to enter into a controversy with the claimants who made them. After 1778, in Virginia, tomahawk rights were put to the test. According to a local historian of northwest Virginia:
Virginia gave to every ''bona fide'' settler who built a log cabin and raised a crop of corn before 1778, a title to 400 acres of land and a pre-emption to 1000 acres more adjoining. These commissioners were appointed to give certificates of these “settlement rights.” The certificate with the surveyor’s plat was sent to the land office at Richmond, and in six months if no ''caveat'' was offered, the patent was issued, and the title was complete. There was previous to the settlement right a right, which was no right in law, called the “tomahawk right.” A hunter would deaden a few trees about a spring and cut his name in the bark of others, and then claim the land in after years. Some land-owners paid them voluntarily a trifle to get rid of them; others did not. The settlement-right to 400 acres was certified to and a certificate issued upon payment of ten shillings per one hundred acres. The cost of certificate was two shillings and six pence.


Cabin rights

Building a cabin and raising a crop of grain of any kind, however small, led to cabin rights, which were recognized not only by custom but also by law.Putnam, Albigence Waldo (1859), ''History of Middle Tennessee: Or, Life and Times of Gen. James Robertson'', pg 62: "Grants known as "cabin-rights" were in that day offered for sale, as land-scrip or warrants are in this. These were bestowed under an act of much liberality passed by the State of Virginia." The laws of the colonies and states varied in their requirements of the settler. In
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
the occupant was entitled to of land and to a
pre-emption right A pre-emption right, right of pre-emption, or first option to buy is a contractual right to acquire certain property newly coming into existence before it can be offered to any other person or entity. It comes from the Latin verb ''emo, emere, emi, ...
to more adjoining, to be secured in either case by a land-office warrant, the basis of a later patent or grant from colonial or state authorities.


Popular culture references

*The Swedish film '' The Emigrants'' (1971) ends with a newly arrived settler in Minnesota claiming his stake by prominently blazing a tree trunk. (The action is anachronistic, however, since the story takes place in 1844.)


References


Citations

{{Reflist


Further reading

*''Dictionary of American History'' by
James Truslow Adams James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history and his three-volume history of New England is well r ...
, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. History of United States expansionism Property law Surveying of the United States