Tomahawk right
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Tomahawk rights — or tomahawk claims, also called cabin rights — were an informal process utilized by early white settlers of the Appalachian and Old Northwest (Ohio, Michigan, etc) frontiers in the mid- to late 18th century to establish priority of ownership to newly occupied land. The claimant typically girdled several trees near the head of a spring or other prominent site, then blazed the bark of one or more of them with his initials or name.[1][2]