The most philosophically interesting dimension of Tecumseh’s project is his argument that certain transactions are inherently void — that land cannot be sold in the way that American treaty law contemplated because land does not belong to individuals or even to specific nations in the way that individual private property belongs to its owners.

This argument is not unique to Tecumseh, but he stated it with particular force and clarity.

The comparison to air and water — things that obviously cannot be individually owned — was designed to make the point vivid: you cannot buy what cannot be owned.

The argument has echoes in other traditions.

Environmental philosophers in the twentieth century have made versions of it.

The legal scholar Felix Cohen, who helped develop the body of American Indian law, recognized the significance of Indigenous land concepts that diverged from European property frameworks.