Checkerboarding (land)

The act was intended to bolster self-sufficiency and systematically fracture native cultures, giving each individual between 40 and 160 acres (16 and 65 ha).

This act of unrightful land transfer from the hands of Native Americans to private railroad companies and homestead grantees resulted in conflicts on more than one occasion.

These tensions led to further violence after a white settler was suspected for murdering a Navajo youth without rightful punishment.

As is the case in northwestern California, checkerboarding has resulted in issues with managing national forest land.

[5] Checkerboarding was previously applied to these areas during the period of western expansion, and they are now commercial forest land.

Conflicting policies establishing the rights of the private owners of this land have caused some difficulties in the local hardwood timber production economy.

While relieving this land from its checkerboard ownership structure could benefit the timber production economy of the region, checkerboards can allow government to extend good forestry practices over intermingled private lands, by demonstration or applying pressure via economy of scale or the right of access.