A European ship sails for the New World in a scene from The Doctrine of Discovery Unmasking: The Domination Code, a documentary co-produced by Steven Newcomb. Still image from YouTube
Through the documentary The Doctrine of Discovery Unmasking: The Domination Code, Steven Newcomb (Shawnee / Lenape) of the Indigenous Law Institute explains how Christian religious principles continue to influence federal Indian law and policy:
“The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code,” shows why it is that when U.S. government officials claimed our ancestors were in need of “human and Christian civilization,” they were actually calling for the domination of our nations and peoples. Viewers of the movie are informed that “civilization” in that context involves “the forcing of a particular cultural pattern on a population to which it is foreign.” The word “forcing” indicates that the word “civilization” is tied to an underlying and forcible pattern of domination. As a counter measure, I made certain that “The Doctrine of Discovery” speaks about our nations as “the originally and still rightfully free nations” of Great Turtle Island (the North American continent and the Western hemisphere). In other words, despite claims by the United States and other countries to the contrary, our nations continue to be rightfully free from the imposed Christian doctrine of domination. There are many reasons why our audiences are shocked by what they see in “The Doctrine of Discovery.” The movie teaches them to “see” the dehumanizing assumptions that were and still are readily accepted, such as the view that the pope or other Christian monarchs had a “God-given right” to grant to Christian monarchs a “right” of domination over our original nations and our territories. The movie shows how such attitudes often resulted in the indiscriminate slaughter of our ancestors, men, women, children, and even infants, and resulted in Christian societies enriching themselves by overrunning and robbing our national territories.Get the Story:
Steven Newcomb: What Shall We Do? Decolonize U.S. Federal Indian Law (Indian Country Today 3/8)
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