Land patent

"[citation needed] Land in the United States of America was acquired by claim, seizure, annexation, purchase, treaty, or war from France, Great Britain, the Kingdom of Hawaii, Mexico, Russia, Spain, and the Native American peoples.

As England began to colonize America, the Crown made large grants of territory to individuals and companies.

Therefore, in colonial America along Atlantic seaboard, a link was established between surveying a land tract and its "patenting" as private property.

Many early land patents granted by Native peoples were disputed, sometimes leading to legal challenges, due to differing interpretations of "private property" and "ownership" between these groups.

Indigenous Americans typically viewed land and its resources as communal property, supported by oral traditions.

In contrast, individuals from Western Europe held more defined and limited perspectives on property, its transfer, and its resolution within a system governed by written laws, Crown authority, officials, courts, and permanent documentation.

After the American Revolution and the ratification of the US Constitution, the US Treasury Department was placed in charge of managing all public lands.

Patentees could pay these fees in cash, homestead a claim, or acquire ownership through various donation acts passed by Congress to transfer public lands to private hands.

Entities other than natural persons, such as trusts and corporations, are not eligible to acquire land patents unless specifically authorized by an act of the US Congress.

[5] For example, the enabling act of the Washington Territory declares in part: ...that the people inhabiting said proposed States do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States.

..Once the people of the territory disclaimed their right and title to the land, the United States held it in trust until an individual established a claim, often by enhancing the homestead parcel over a specific period.