The short answer is, No!

 

Some claim that western states gave up their right to their public lands. In cherry picking only a few words of the statehood enabling acts of western states (that the people "forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands"), such modern-day colonialists (a) neglect the rest of the sentence in the enabling acts wherein the federal government promised to "extinguish title" to the public lands, (b) overlook the fact that this same "forever disclaim" language is in the enabling acts of states east of Colorado where the federal government did honor the promise to "extinguish title" to their public lands, (c) ignore the law, and (d) disregard the history which confirms the "forever disclaim" language merely vests title in the federal government to the public lands so that when it does honor its promise to "extinguish title," it will pass "secure title in the soil" to the recipients.

 

Don't be dissuaded by the public land myths of modern-day colonialists. Just like those states that succeeded in 1828 in compelling the federal government to honor its promise to extinguish title to the public lands, we have to (1) know our history, (2) know our rights, (3) band together, and (4) refuse to take "NO" for an answer.

 

 

 

Liberating our Lands

Quick Fact #3

Did We Really Give Up Our Lands At Statehood?

No, we certainly did NOT give up our public lands at statehood! However, some, ignorantly or intentionally, continue to trot out this tired myth to forever subject western states to an arbitrary colonialism, rather than afford them "terms of equality" with other states.

 

This myth is based on a few cherry-picked words from the contracts of statehood of some western states (the enabling acts) that the people "forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof ..."

 

There are several major problems with this myth.

 

First, it leaves out the rest of the sentence, which is "that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States." The federal government promised to "extinguish title" (i.e., transfer title), NOT to be a land baron.

 

Second, this "forever disclaim" language is word-for-word the same in the statehood enabling acts of states east of Colorado like North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, etc. where the federal government did honor the promise to extinguish title to the public lands. (Read here and here.) This same promise was phrased this way for states both east and west of Colorado. Specifically, that the states "shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil within the same, by the United States."

 

Third, the U.S. Supreme Court explained that the

 

"prohibition against interference 'with the primary disposal of the soil' ... was continued in substantially the same words in many of the enabling acts under which States were admitted to the Union ... a condition which had its exact equivalent in the provision of other enabling acts that the States should 'never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands' lying within them. ... The restriction had reference to the disposition of the public lands of the United States." Christianson v. King County, 239 U.S. 356, 363-365 (U.S. 1915).

 

Fourth, the U.S. Supreme Court in Christianson also explained the historical context of this disclaimer language, stating that it

 

"defined a limitation which had been established from the beginning in organizing territorial governments. This provision was found in the Ordinance passed by the Congress of the Confederation, April 23, 1784, for the government of the Western Territory and it was reenacted in the superseding Ordinance of 1787."

 

In 1833, President Andrew Jackson surveyed this early history of the public lands, the "solemn compacts" of the states by which the states ceded title to these lands to the federal government for the express purpose of disposing of them to create new states and to use the proceeds to pay the public debt, and clarified:

 

"To secure to the Government of the United States forever the power to execute these compacts in good faith the Congress of the Confederation ... declared that -- 'The legislatures of those districts, or new States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers.' This condition has been exacted from the people of all the new territories, and to put its obligation beyond dispute each new State carved out of the public domain has been required explicitly to recognize it as one of the conditions of admission into the Union. Some of them have declared through their conventions in separate acts that their people 'forever disclaim all right and title to the waste and unappropriated lands lying within this State, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States.'"

 

Don't be fooled by public land myths! We have to (1) know our public lands history, (2) know our rights, (3) band together, and (4) refuse to take "NO" for an answer, just as the 1828 western states did in successfully compelling the federal government to extinguish title to their public lands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, please forward this information to everyone you know, post it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc., and encourage your friends to do the same.

 

Second, as a result of Utah and others in the west beginning to go on the offensive in securing local control of land access, land use, and land ownership, several counties, municipalities, organizations, businesses and individuals have recently come together to form the American Lands Council (ALC), www.americanlandscouncil.org. Click here to get involved in advancing the mission of ALC.

 

Third, money and manpower will make the difference! Please click the donate button (at the top of  this page) to support this critical initiative as we build "The 1828 Resolve" throughout the western states.

HOW TO TAKE ACTION TODAY