Tomahawk rights, also called cabin rights or tomahawk claims, were an informal process that was used by early white settlers of the Appalachian and Old Northwest (Ohio, Michigan, etc) frontiers in the mid-to-late 18th century to establish priority of ownership to newly-occupied land.
The claimant typically girdled several trees near the head of a spring or other prominent site and blazed the bark of one or more of them with his initials or name.
[1][2] Land bounties had been promised by colonial officials to all those who had served in the provincial forces during the French and Indian War (1754-63), but for those who could not qualify for such bounties, the practice grew up at the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers of taking possession of unoccupied land without authority and establishing "tomahawk claims," which were widely respected among the earliest pioneers.
[3] To claim tomahawk rights, the claimant typically girdled several trees near the head of a spring and blazed the bark of one or more of them with their initials or name.
[1] Tomahawk rights gave the settler no legal title unless they were followed by occupation or a warrant and a patent secured from the land office.