>From a conversation with Larry Fleenor: "Cherokee justice was awarded by the tribal council, but the wronged person or his relatives were expected to execute it. To fail to do it was a failure of justice, and nothing is more basic to society than justice. In Ridge Runner culture, the moderating effect of the initial tribal counsil decision has been lost due to the fact that there is no more tribal counsil, so justice is individually decided upon, and in an individual duty, and to not do it is to be a coward and a social dysfunctionate (I just made that last word up)." "The main practical problem is the differing common law understandings of property rights. The Celts, because of their strong Scandanavian heritage, believe that open land (think mountains) is shared to some extent by all. Everyone can hunt on it, everyone can tresspass on it, everyone can run their cattle on it; even though the property owner has the special privilege of more intense economic exploitation. When I was a boy, everyone in Rich Valley could hunt on every one elses land with out asking, you just knew how close to their house you could come. There was an invisible boundry. That’s Viking Common Law, and it is gone. The English Common Law has won out in Washington Co, but the conflict continues in the Back Counties. The Ridge Runner believes that the English common Law that is derived from the Roman, is an affront. The posted signs etc. are an English Common Law reality intruding into the psychological Viking common law whereby the mountains belong to everyone. I have read a book by a PhD who ascribes much of the Hatfield-McCoy feud to this. "