INTRODUCTION

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.

The 200^th 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.

About

Our methods are guided by Haudenosaunee ideas of peace, the environment, and freedom and democracy. The Haudenosaunee have retained their pre-colonial matrilineal clan system of governance and remain among the last sovereign Indigenous peoples in the U.S., if not the world, who still govern themselves by their ancient ceremonial Longhouse practices according to "The Great Law of Peace." As such, we look to the Haudenosaunee as the forgotten founders of Western Democracy. In the Two Row Wampum Treaty, an agreement made between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in 1613, Haudenosaunee agreed to co-inhabit the land with European-Americans without interference on either side. The "silver covenant chain" used during the negotiations represented the intercultural understanding that required effort and attention by both people. The Two-Row Wampum is more than a treaty; it is living covenant that provides a theory and a method for how the values of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy can inform and enhance not only inter-Indigenous collaborations but also deep and abiding solidarity with and from non-Indigenous peoples.