It wasn’t just the indigenous people who were robbed, either.
The main issue is that Europeans had a very different concept of land ownership and land management; in the European view, land was a thing to be conquered, subdued, and divided up for exploitation by those who successfully did so.
The indigenous perspective, for the most part (different peoples had varying views on this), was that the land was something of which people were a part, and needed to be kept in balance.
When Europeans hear “unceeded”, they hear “land they never intentionally sold”. When indigenous people hear “unceeded”, they hear “land we never collectively agreed would be used in this way.”
We need land back now. Indigenous people were robbed of their unceded land.
It wasn’t just the indigenous people who were robbed, either.
The main issue is that Europeans had a very different concept of land ownership and land management; in the European view, land was a thing to be conquered, subdued, and divided up for exploitation by those who successfully did so.
The indigenous perspective, for the most part (different peoples had varying views on this), was that the land was something of which people were a part, and needed to be kept in balance.
When Europeans hear “unceeded”, they hear “land they never intentionally sold”. When indigenous people hear “unceeded”, they hear “land we never collectively agreed would be used in this way.”