I disagree about her statement. She maintains throughout that they’ve been wronged and as much as ever when it came to paying for rights.
She says they were told those fees were for a certain purpose but then the government stopped providing the service they’d paid for. He canceled their policy in her mind.
It would be no different than my canceling my flood insurance policy. I’d have to then deal with it myself and not rely on the fed. As a farmer would say, he said “I fired them.”
He would not have thought he stopped having access to the land because he thought the fees were for the services promised.
In North Carolina, the Fed promised the people of Swain county a road after the Fed inappropriately pressured people into giving up land for the Smoky Mountain Park. They have never provided that road.
Should the descendants now move back onto that land and say, “They never did their part of the bargain.”?
I would fully understand if they did.
In WNC the Vanderbilts donated thousands of acres of land for the people to be used by them and their descendents FOREVER, and I saw the deed years ago personally. A few years ago the Fed agency began closing the public use of that Campground by putting rocks in camping spots and planting grass not normal to the area.
Trees were cut and thrown into the river so the children could no longer tube there, but fishermen were allowed to buy licenses and fish there. Now, we are fishermen too, however there are miles and miles of river for that...children are being pushed out so families won’t come for the day or camp there.
Their excuse was they couldn’t afford to patrol the area but never asked for volunteers or donations. Only a few spots remain within an observable area and are rented out to people who make money overseeing the park, so a few tourists can visit with their RVs.