Tomahawk right

Tomahawk rights, also called cabin rights or tomahawk claims, were an informal process that was used 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 and blazed the bark of one or more of them with his initials or name.