AMERICA: THE OCCUPYING STATE: Indigenous Land, Colonial Law, and the Myth of Lawful Title

Book OverviewAmerica: The Occupying State is a scholarly and uncompromising examination of Indigenous land, colonial law, and the myth of lawful title in the United States.Mark Anthony Perkins challenges the accepted narrative that Indigenous lands became American property through fair settlement and lawful consent. Instead, this book traces how European colonial claims, the Doctrine of Discovery, pressured treaties, forced removal, allotment, land patents, court rulings, racial reclassification, and paper genocide helped transform Indigenous homelands into U.S. territory.At its center is one urgent question: did Indigenous peoples ever freely, lawfully, and collectively surrender their lands and sovereignty?This work also explores how many Indigenous-descended families were misclassified in records as Negro, Colored, Mulatto, Black, or African American, weakening their connection to tribal identity, land, treaty memory, and political belonging.More than a history of dispossession, America: The Occupying State offers a path toward reclamation through genealogy, documentation, community rolls, treaty education, land trusts, sacred-site protection, governance, and Indigenous continuity.This book is written for descendants, researchers, scholars, students, advocates, and anyone willing to confront the deeper legal and historical foundation beneath American land title. Read more