Today’s Durham occupies Native peoples’ land
- For thousands of years, Native people lived free on the land.
- White European colonialists used violence, terror, and a foreign legal system to claim Native homelands.
- The land we know today as Durham County was originally home to the Eno and Occoneechee peoples.
Excerpt from Tribal Nations Map, showing the names and homelands of Native people before colonization.
Courtesy Aaron R. Carapella, tribalnationsmap.com
Private land ownership as we know it did not previously exist in the Americas.
In the Carolina colony, the British empire sold parcels of stolen Native land to European settlers. These were called land grants. With this legal document, all the land and its resources became private property.
Orange County land grant, circa 1765. Courtesy State Archives of North Carolina.
Today’s Durham occupies Native peoples’ land
- For thousands of years, Native people lived free on the land.
- White European colonialists used violence, terror, and a foreign legal system to claim Native homelands.
- The land we know today as Durham County was originally home to the Eno and Occoneechee peoples.
Excerpt from Tribal Nations Map, showing the names and homelands of Native people before colonization.
Courtesy Aaron R. Carapella, tribalnationsmap.com