Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1353/cro.2024.a963625

Abstract

In 2022 Syracuse University received a Henry Luce Foundation grant to support the work of Philip P. Arnold and the Indigenous Values Initiative's Doctrine of Discovery Project (doctrineofdiscovery.org). We received three years of funding for '200 Years of Johnson v. M'Intosh (JvM): Indigenous Responses to the Religious Foundations of Racism.' This grant and project has been a collaborative initiative made possible through relationships developed over 30 years between academic and Indigenous communities. At its core, the project seeks to interrogate and critically examine connections between the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (DoCD), the Catholic Papal Bulls that undergird the Doctrine, and the Doctrine's pernicious influence on United States Indian Law today.

INTRODUCTION

The 200th anniversary of JvM provided an excellent moment to challenge the theology and jurisprudence of the DoCD and this critical Supreme Court decision. The project delved into a range of products and written works such are included in this volume. The essays, podcasts, conference, and public outreach activities of the project grant have helped to raise awareness about the harmful impacts of the DoCD.

200 Years of Johnson v. M'intosh

In the 1823 US Supreme Court decision, Johnson v M'Intosh, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, "… discovery gave title to government … [and] the sole right of acquiring the soil from the natives." This decision underpins US property law and "Federal Anti-Indian Law" (or, FAIL, as Peter d'Errico has more accurately renamed in it). Justice Marshall's deliberate use of the word "discovery" is an intentional reference to fifteenth Century Catholic Papal Bulls, which stated that any Christian who "discovers" a land populated by non-Christians has superior title, or rights of ownership, over that land. In essence, JvM codifies into US law the principle of Euro-Christian domination over Indigenous Peoples. In [End Page 391] the most devastating sense, DoCD legitimized exploitation, extraction, and enslavement globally and enshrined these practices as the basis of U.S. property law still cited today as recently as 2005 (in Oneida v. Sherrill) and 2020 (McGirt v. Oklahoma).

The 200th anniversary of JvM has provided time for a global recognition of the decision's implications as reifying DoCD and its exploitation of Indigenous Peoples and their connection to land, thought to be a living being (what is often called "Mother Earth" in English). Our work these past three years has built on the history of collaboration at Syracuse University with Haudenosaunee communities across Central New York by expanding dissemination of the pernicious ideologies of DoCD and JvM, leading to further repudiation of these ideologies and towards healing and repair.

Since Arnold and Sandra Bigtree started the Doctrine of Christian Discovery Project in 2005, it has led to an ongoing series of presentations and interventions at the United Nations, spearheaded by the American Indian Law Alliance. The project's resources have been influential for at least thirteen religious communities globally that have publicly repudiated the DoCD. For more than a decade, the project, its working group, and collaborators have worked with these partners to catalyze the rejection of the DoCD among religious communities worldwide. The first repudiation of the doctrines by a Christian denomination was issued in 2009 by the Episcopal Church, USA (ECUSA); an effort led by the Wabanaki Alliance (Micmac, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot nations) in partnership with ECUSA leadership. Since that time, a dozen more religious communities have issued their own public denouncements of the DOCD, including, among others, The Anglican Church of Canada, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ, in the U.S. and Canada), The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Friends General Conference, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, United Church of Canada, and United Methodist Church. Additionally, Pax Christi of Maine and the Loretto Community along with thirteen other Roman Catholic Organizations have repudiated the doctrine. In 2012, the World Council of Churches (Oikumene), the largest inter-church Christian fellowship comprised of over 350 denominations, issued their own repudiation. Finally in 2023 the Roman Catholic Church Issued its own rather...