"Words have a history. Words from the past have the ability to colonize the present. Words shape and create reality.

Reconciliation has a history; it has the ability to colonize the present for Indigenous nations and peoples; it can be used to maintain a particular kind of reality that benefits states to the continued detriment of Indigenous nations and peoples. It is a term that deserves further investigation and discussion rather than immediate unquestioning adoption.

In my view, it is not possible to “reconcile” ourselves with a dominator (predatory) perspective and behaviors, or with the terribly destructive legacy of that paradigm of domination.

“Reconciliation” was a major theme in the Torquemada Code of the Inquisition. Indian spiritual leaders in Mexico and other areas of Spanish claimed territory were persecuted under the Inquisition, and our Indigenous spiritual leaders more northward on Turtle Island, were persecuted by the Catholic Church and other denominations of Christianity."

Get the Story:
Steven T. Newcomb: A Critique of a Doctrine of Reconciliation (Indian Country Today 6/15)

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