Correct, it was a land grab scam based on the laws of the time.

IIRC, if he planted trees it was then his land because he was using it, so he could then sell it for actual money. This was after the military had killed or chased out the natives who lived on it, of course.

Sorry for the YouTube link, if anyone can find it hosted elsewhere let me know I’ll update my post.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aD_Tyj-wbC4

Johnny never really profited. By all accounts he was likely neurodivergent and Apple Trees were his special interest. His labor and efforts to educate others was leveraged by others to snatch land up and proof of improvement to the land for homesteading.

The US government was absolutely at fault for the genocide of indigenous peoples. But Johnny was at worse a useful idiot and at best a roving horticulturist who wasn’t very good at owning land.

Useful idiot or not, the fact is, according to The Technician at least, he was a successful businessman, so somebody is wrong here.

I’m too old and cynical to believe that it wasn’t a scam, ND or not, and that doesn’t absolve him from complicity.

Probably, but I don’t care enough to look them up.

Factoids aren’t my special interest any more since I became disabled.