Why is C wrong and B right?
Started by
yckim2180
· started 2020-05-15 01:23
· last activity 2020-05-15 16:42
· 1 reply
I’m not finding a direct support of B in the passage, but support for C can be found in lines 33-36: “Additionally, if communal land use remained preferable...free alienability would have allowed allottees to sell their lands back to the tribe.” So how come the answer is B?
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SamA
· 2020-05-15 16:42
Hello @yckim2180,
First, I will provide some support for answer choice B. Consider lines 22-26: "A second objection to free alienation was that Native Americans were unaccustomed to, and did not desire, a system of private land ownership. Their custom, it was said, favored communal use of land." This lack of desire for private land ownership suggests that Native Americans generally did not own the land on which they lived.
The same lines also oppose answer choice C. If Native Americans had preferred communal living, why would they purchase land from their own tribe for personal use?
I see how the phrase "selling back to the tribe" might suggest that the land was at some point purchased from the tribe. However, the lines you provided are referring to the allotted land from the Dawes Act. This land was not purchased from the tribe, but rather provided by the government.
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