YouTube: Trailer: The Doctrine of Discovery Unmasking the Domination Code

A documentary about the Doctrine of Christian Discovery will be screened in Washington, D.C., as Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States.

The Doctrine of Discovery Unmasking: The Domination Code explores how religion has shaped federal Indian law and policy in the U.S. The film was directed by Sheldon P. Wolfchild, a former chairman of the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota, and was co-produced by Steven Newcomb of the Indigenous Law Institute, who has written extensively on the subject.

Wolfchild and Newcomb have been showing their film across the nation. They are due to present it at the Takoma Park Library in D.C. on September 21, a day before Pope Francis arrives in the capital.

Tribes, activists and scholars like Newcomb have called on Pope Francis to repudiate the church documents that gave rise to the Doctrine of Discovery. They note that the U.S. Supreme Court has continued to cite the doctrine in cases affecting land rights and sovereignty.

During his stay in D.C., Pope Francis will meet with President Barack Obama, address a joint session of Congress and bestow sainthood upon Junipero Serra, who was the founder of the brutal Indian mission system in California.

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