President Donald Trump meets with representatives of the automobile industry on January 24, 2017. Photo: Donald Trump
With Republican President Donald Trump issuing new edicts that ignore tribal sovereignty, perhaps it's time for a refresher on the origins of federal Indian law and policy. Steven Newcomb (Shawnee / Lenape) of the Indigenous Law Institute explains how the system of domination is connected to religious beliefs:
The assumed right and reality system of domination remains disguised. It stays out of focus through the use of ordinary sounding words that people seldom associate with domination, words such as “tribe(s),” “tribal,” “colonial,” “state,” “federal,” “U.S. federal Indian law,” “kingdom,” “lord,” “sovereign,” “sovereignty,” “jurisdiction,” “civil,” “civilization,” “jurisdiction,” “government,” “Christian,” “dominion,” “title,” “aboriginal,” “occupancy,” “possession,” “conquest,” “conquer,” “subjugation,” “subjection,” “ascendancy,” “government,” “plenary power,” and so forth. Anyone who takes the time to dig deep will find that these and many other words are secret or tacit metaphorical carriers of the domination code. They are words that carry different aspects of the system of domination. What is called United States federal Indian law is first and foremost a system of ideas premised on an assumed right of domination which is mastered by each new generation of U.S. government officials, and passed on to the next. The ideas that make up U.S. federal Indian law began as concepts created in the white man’s mind and language system. A prime example is a statement made by Chief Justice John Marshall in the Johnson v. M’Intosh ruling from 1823. Marshall said that the “character and religion” of the continent’s “inhabitants afforded an apology [a rationale] for considering them [the Indians] as a people over whom the superior genius of Europe might claim an ascendancy.” Webster’s defines the word “ascendancy” as, “controlling influence: governing power: DOMINATION” (capital letters in the original text).Read More on the Story:
Steven Newcomb: Domination: The Hidden Code Used Against Our Nations (Indian Country Today 1/24)
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