Seeds of Change Action Item: Revoke the Doctrine of Discovery
Pope Nicholas V, by Peter Paul Rubens
In class today we talked about the Doctrine of Discovery. If you don’t remember learning about this in your US history classes, it’s probably because it wasn’t taught. I own a thousand-page US history textbook called The American Journey, and it’s not mentioned once. But we should all know about the Doctrine of Discovery, and we should all be working to formally revoke it.
The Indigenous Law Institute has a fantastic (and brief!) primer on the Doctrine of Discovery called Five Hundred Years of Injustice: The Legacy of Fifteenth Century Religious Prejudice. It is well worth your time to read it in full. But if you don’t have time right now, here’s what we’re talking about:
1452 - Pope Nicholas V issues a papal bull that declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world. It gave the king of Portugal permission to "capture, vanquish, and subdue the saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ," to “put them in perpetual slavery,” and “to take all their possessions and property.” Non-Christians were not considered to be human beings.
1492 - Columbus journeys to the Americas with permission to claim any land he “discovered” that was not already inhabited by Christian people.
1493 - When Columbus returned to Europe, Pope Alexander VI issues papal bull Inter Cetera which grants Spain permission to claim the land Columbus “discovered” or any land he might “discover” in the future.
These papal bulls of 1452 and 1493 are collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery. They transformed the world. England, France, and Holland would adopt their own Doctrines of Discovery, and each of these countries would use them as justification for the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans and Indigenous people and for claiming Indigenous land. The Doctrine of Discovery is the foundation of colonization.
But here’s the really wild, and really terrible thing. This 500 year old papal decree, so nakedly racist and horrible now, is still embedded in our legal system, and is still being used by the US government to subjugate Native Americans. Here’s a quick video explanation:
The Five Hundred Years of Injustice article explains this very well, but essentially, the US Supreme court used the Doctrine of Discovery as rationalization for taking Indigenous land. In the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that because the Native Americans were “heathens” (non-Christians) they weren’t entitled to claim the land where they lived, and instead only had a right of occupancy. The first Christians to “discover” the land, he wrote, had assumed “ultimate dominion.” This case set the precedent for many more unjust actions by the US government in the years since, including circumventing treaties and stealing land and money from Native Americans. It’s been used as recently as 2005 in a Supreme Court case that limited the Oneida Nation’s sovereignty. It’s still a really big issue. So that leads to this week’s action item: work to revoke the Doctrine of Discovery. Lots of people have called on Pope Francis to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, from Indigenous nations to members of the Catholic faith. Let’s join them! Here are some ideas for how we can help.
If you’re a member of a Christian church, research whether or not your religious body has shared a statement to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. If they haven’t, why not? Can you help push them to adopt one? The Unitarian Universalist Association has a good model available here.
Write to the Pope, and/or to your US Senator or Representative, to ask them to work to challenge the role of the Doctrine of Discovery in US policy. It is unconstitutional (there should be a separation of church and state) and immoral.
Kids can draw a picture to include with a letter or to post to social media to raise awareness for this issue. In the quotation copied below Steve Newcomb writes that together we can work to honor the most important Indigenous principle: “Respect the Earth and have a Sacred Regard for All Living Things.” Maybe that principle will help inspire your artwork.
“Revoking those papal documents and overturning the Johnson v. McIntosh decision are two important first steps toward correcting the injustices that have been inflicted on indigenous peoples over the past five hundred years. They are also spiritually significant steps toward creating a way of life that is no longer based on greed and subjugation. Perhaps then we will be able to use our newfound solidarity to begin to create a lifestyle based on the first indigenous principle: “Respect the Earth and have a Sacred Regard for All Living Things.” ”
Additional Resources:
The Doctrine of Discovery and its Enduring Impact on Indigenous Peoples
Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
Chapter 11 in An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is about the Doctrine of Discovery
History Smashers: The Mayflower mentions the Doctrine of Discovery on page 26.
