Trespassing

About this book

How did a nation built on a vision of "wide open spaces" come to believe in the private ownership of land? John Hanson Mitchell, one of our foremost nature writers, explores this question. Building upon the heartbreaking story of a tribe of "praying Indians" who bought into the colonists' legal system and settled their own 2000-acre tract, only to be dispossessed and herded into a detention camp, Mitchell explores every variation of this important issue. From the beginning of British common law up to the most recent Supreme Court takings decisions, Trespassing follows the evolution of our attitudes toward land.