The first conflict over what is Native land started with the very purchase of Alaska by the U.S. When Tlingit chiefs first learned that Alaska had been sold to the United States, they objected and advised the U. S. officials that the Russians had lived in their country only with their permission.
An agent of the U. S. Treasury Department reported in 1869 that:
The dissatisfaction among the tribes on account of the sale of the territory did not arise from any special feeling of hostility, but from the fact that it was sold without their consent, they arguing that their fathers originally owned all the country, but allowed the Russians to occupy it for their mutual benefit, in that articles desired by them could be obtained from the Russians in exchange for furs; but the right of the Russians to sell the territory, except with the intention of giving them the proceeds, is denied.