The Doctrine of Discovery repudiated

On March 30, 2023, the Catholic church, by way of a Vatican press release, officially repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery.

Montana State Representative Jonathan Windy Boy, Chippewa Cree suggested this story.  He hopes to introduce legislation to get the State of Montana to concur. That will have to be in his next term. Windy Boy has served in the Montana Legislature, going on twenty years, almost a shoe in for the next election.

“The repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery could be a game changer for native peoples around the world,” Windy Boy noted. “All native people should become familiar with what is going on.”

According to internet information, the Doctrine of Discovery was used by European monarchies, beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, as a means of legitimizing the colonization of lands outside of Europe. It was issued in 1493, the year after Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of what is now known as North America.

The Doctrine of Discovery continues to impact Indigenous Peoples throughout the world. The Doctrine of Discovery provided a framework for Christian explorers, in the name of their sovereign, to lay claim to territories uninhabited by Christians. If the lands were vacant, then they could be defined as “discovered” and sovereignty claimed.

Within the framework of the Doctrine, Indigenous Peoples in the Americas were considered non-human.

The presiding theory of the time was that Indigenous Peoples, non-Christians, were not human and therefore the land was empty or terra nullius, up for grabs from Christians.

When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, it is estimated that the Americas were actually occupied by 100 million Indigenous Peoples – which was about one-fifth of the human race at that time – who had been living their traditional lives on the land since time immemorial.

But, because they were not Christians the land was deemed terra nullius or vacant, free for the taking. The UN’s perspective on the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery (May 2012) said: “The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concluded its eleventh session with the approval of a set of nine draft recommendations, highlighted by a text approved on the special theme, the ongoing impact of the Discovery Doctrine on indigenous peoples and the right to redress. That fifteenth-century Christian principle was denounced throughout the session as the “shameful” root of all the discrimination and marginalization indigenous peoples faced today.

The Permanent Forum noted that, while such doctrines of domination and “conquest” including terra nullis and the Regalian doctrine, were promoted as authority for land acquisition, they also encouraged despicable assumptions: that indigenous peoples were “savages,” “barbarians,” “inferior and uncivilized,” among other constructs the colonizers used to subjugate, dominate and exploit the lands, territories and resources of native peoples.

The Doctrine of Discovery is still relevant in today’s legal arenas in Canada: “On 26 June 2014, in a unanimous 8:0 decision that marked the first time the highest court has recognized the existence of Aboriginal title on a particular site, the Supreme Court of Canada made clear that: “The doctrine of terra nullius (that no one owned the land prior to European assertion of sovereignty) never applied in Canada.”

The case concerned an Aboriginal title claim to lands within the province of British Columbia and as the Court explains: “At the time of assertion of European sovereignty, the Crown acquired radical or underlying title to all the land in the province. This Crown title, however, was burdened by the pre-existing legal rights of Aboriginal people who occupied and used the land prior to European arrival. The Aboriginal interest in land that burdens the Crown’s underlying title is an independent legal interest, which gives rise to a fiduciary duty on the part of the Crown.”

Both Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples stated: “We call upon all religious denominations and faith groups who have not already done so to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius (vacant land).”

The Vatican Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery stated: “In no uncertain terms, the Church’s magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being. The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery.’”

“Who knows where this could go?” Windy Boy said. “Hardly anyone in Montana is considering this, especially my very Christian and conservative Republicans in the Montana Legislature. I intend to push this idea because it is nice to finally be considered a ‘human being.’”

(Contact Clara Caufield at acheyennevoice@gmail.com)

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