On Ownership

How do you really own something? Are the things that we "own" really ours or can someone else have a claim on them? For example, I purchased the computer that I am currently using with my money, but is it really mine?

Let's take a step back. Going back to when the settlers came to the New World, they found a vast land inhabited by the Native Americans. With any basic knowledge of US history, you will know that the Natives were pushed further and further west as the Americans took hold of the land. To rationalize the acquisition of land, the concept of Manifest Destiny emerged. Basically, the story goes, it was ordained by God that the United States needed to have all the land from coast to coast. So, the Natives were thrown off their previous land, and we had events such as the Trail of Tears.

Now I'm not going to debate that the Europeans/Americans did some pretty bad things in killing lots of Natives, spreading their diseases, etc. But my thought is: was it really that wrong for the Natives to be moved to new lands? Did they really OWN their previously inhabited land?

My thought is that they didn't really own it. To me, ownership is contingent on some powerful body being able to back you up if someone tries to take your property. For example, if I take your computer, and there is no US government to back you up and send the police after me, then do you really have a claim on that computer? In this situation we are in the State of Nature and might means right.

In my view the Native American Nation had sovereignty over a certain space of land, but after losing battles to the Europeans/Americans, the sovereignty was transferred away from them to Great Britain and later the United States. Thus, ownership was transferred, so how could the Native Americans' land really be "stolen"? They had no one to turn to in order to enforce their claim on the land.

What do you think?