Hi there! A good friend of mine is working on a research paper, and was hoping to find some more information and documentation about the subject. I want to help him out, and I figured that this community would be a good place to ask, so if anyone has books, papers, or other things to check out, I'd appreciate it very greatly!
For more context on the paper, he gave me this understanding:
It starts from the premise that westward expansion in the USA imposed a settler-colonial understanding of nature and purpose onto land, which considers it as a fungible commodity that can be "developed" without regard for its specific character.
It indicates that as the US was founded on that understanding of land, it still defines how the US and its citizens engage with the land nowadays.
Considering the above, it intends to do the following:
A) Provide a historical overview of settler interactions with the land (e.g. Homestead acts, Dawes act)
B) Explain what that reflects about settler relationships to the land (as opposed to indigenous relationships to it), especially with regard to its valuation as privately owned and fungible commodity.
C) Identify how this relationship to land leads to modern issues, especially in agriculture and housing.
Recommendations for any relevant readings would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a million, comrades 