The white settlers believed that land can be owned by people- that is, you can put a fence around a piece of land and prohibit others from entering it.
The Cherokee believed that land cannot be owned by particular people, but that it's a shared good of people (much like the air cannot be owned).
There was however a tribe ownershipt - a land belonged to a tribe and that tribe could hunt on that land. This concept of ownership gave the Cherokee a feeling of safety (that others won't hunt on their land and take their food away)