Whiteness As Property by Cheryl I. Harris pg.1721-1722

Although the Indians were the first occupants and possessors of the land of the New World, their racial and cultural otherness allowed this fact to be reinterpreted and ultimately erased as a basis for asserting rights in land. Because the land had been left in its natural state, untilled and unmarked by human hands, it was "waste" and, therefore, the appropriate object of settlement and appropriation. Thus, the possession maintained by the Indians was not "true" possession and could safely be ignored. This interpretation of the rule of first possession effectively rendered the rights of first possessors contingent on the race of the possessor. Only particular forms of possession-those that were characteristic of white settlement-would be recognized and legitimated. Indian forms of possession were perceived to be too ambiguous and unclear.
-Whiteness As Property by Cheryl I. Harris Harvard Law Review
Volume 106 June 1993 Number 8 pg.1721-1722