The rule against private land purchases let the US buy tribal land cheaply

Evidence

With its customary rule against private purchases of Native American land, reaffirmed in M’Intosh, the state prevented competitive bidding for Native American lands. It drew on a special cadre of career Native American negotiators to buy land cheaply… . [T]he bottom line was the bottom line: acquiring Native American lands at least cost. — Wikipedia contributors, Johnson v. McIntosh, 27

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: sumptuary-law-style prohibitions as price-fixing — how legal bans on private purchase function as monopsony policy, a companion to the immodesty/signaling piece.