The English settlers who came to settle the New World had a concept of what property was; in their minds property equated to money. This differed greatly from the Native American perspective, where ownership equated to survival. When English settlers took lands that naturally belonged to the Indians under the charter rights given to them by the English crown, they misunderstood many of the natives' conceptions of ownership. Although the English were similar to the natives in some respects, in most cases, such as who had the right to the land, how the land was to be cultivated, what value the property actually had, and who pre-owned and could distribute the land, both cultures differed greatly, leading to eventual conflict between the English and Native Americans. Although the English and Native Americans were both different in how they viewed the land, there were some similarities between the two cultures. First of all, they both accepted the terms of a monarchy: the idea that a monarch who ruled the land was more of a symbolic figure of an entire people rather than a rich and wealthy landowner. Even though the English called their monarch a king and the Indians a sachem, the ideas behind the two were practically the same. Second, if hunters were after game, both cultures agreed that they could cross otherwise rigid boundaries to obtain game. This shows that, although both were quite precise in drawing village boundaries, food exceeded otherwise legal boundaries. Finally, the English and Native Americans differed little in how land could be bought or sold. Now, this doesn't mean that they thought they viewed property the same way or that we... middle of paper... by robbing the Indians of their land, the English upset and injured many Native American tribes, leading to many disputes over land ownership. For many English settlers, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs, without any consideration for the natives who had already owned the land. This belittling of the Indians later caused great problems for the English, because the natives did not care what the Crown granted to the colonists because it was not theirs to grant it in the first place. The theory of European superiority over Native Americans caused differences in how the cultures interacted, as well as surprising social unrest between the two cultures. Works Cited Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Settlers, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983. Print.