Opinion. Thursday was a historic news day for Native Americans.
Levi Rickert
NATIVE NEWS ONLINE
Sun, April 2, 2023
A protester holds a sign as Pope Francis takes part in a public event in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Friday, July 29, 2022, during his papal visit across Canada. (Dustin Patar/The Canadian Press via AP)
While most of the country — perhaps the world — was focused on news about the first-ever indictment of a former President of the United States, many in Indian Country were more concerned with a statement from an obscure, academic-sounding department of the Vatican.
The joint statement of the Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development on the “Doctrine of Discovery” came early Thursday in Michigan. The statement was historic because it repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which for almost 500 years provided the basis for Europeans nations to justify and legitimize their taking of Indigenous lands throughout the world, including in the Americas, Africa, and Australia.
Scholars have argued that the doctrine originated in a series of papal bulls—or decrees—that granted permission to colonial powers such as Spain and Portugal to seize lands in the “New World” — providing the people living on the lands were not Christians.
Thursday’s statement cites three papal bulls: the Bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493). The latter decreed in 1493, one year after Columbus first arrived in what are now known as the Americas.
The historic statement was welcomed news until you got past the headline and began to read the 9-point statement. Upon examination, the statement lacks real teeth in that the Vatican fails to accept accountability and admit its sins for a doctrine set forth in the name of Christianity or, more specifically, the Catholic Church.
Some Native American friends who are well-versed on the topic compared the repudiation to Pope Francis’ apology last year in Canada for the horrific deeds committed against innocent Indigenous students in residential schools. In that apology, Francis blamed individuals versus the Catholic Church. Similarly, Thursday’s statement denied that doctrine was never fully sanctioned by the Church.
“In what could have been a groundbreaking and historic repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Vatican instead released a series of political statements that sought to rewrite history, shield the Catholic Church from legal liability and shift the blame for the Doctrine of Discovery to governmental and colonial powers,” Mark Charles, author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, said to Native News Online.
Two-thirds into the document, the sixth point reads: “The ‘doctrine of discovery’ is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.”
While the Catholic Church still chooses to deny their sins, the truth is that governments around the world have long justified their taking of the Indigenous lands because of the doctrine’s Christian authorship.
The government of the United States was heavily influenced by the doctrine in 1823, when the U.S. Supreme Court used it as the basis for its ruling that Indigenous people had only the rights of occupancy, not ownership, over lands on which they dwelled. This made way for non-Natives to seize Native lands across the country and commit acts of genocide that led to the near annihilation of our ancestors.
As recently as 2005, the Doctrine of Discovery was used by the Supreme Court to justify limiting the expansion of the Oneida Nation in the Sherrill v. Oneida Nation of New York case when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited it in the majority opinion she crafted. The Court, she wrote, must prevent “the Tribe from rekindling the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold.”
It’s unfortunate that Justice Ginsburg failed to recognize that the Doctrine of Discovery was created to extinguish our sovereignty — and millions of our ancestors. Even today, we still live with the consequences of those decrees written a half-millennia ago. But I’m also reminded that the embers of some fires can burn for months or even years.
I am grateful to the Creator that some of our ancestors survived so that we are still here as tribal nations, in spite of the sins of the Catholic Church.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
About the Author: "Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net."
Sun, April 2, 2023
A protester holds a sign as Pope Francis takes part in a public event in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Friday, July 29, 2022, during his papal visit across Canada. (Dustin Patar/The Canadian Press via AP)
While most of the country — perhaps the world — was focused on news about the first-ever indictment of a former President of the United States, many in Indian Country were more concerned with a statement from an obscure, academic-sounding department of the Vatican.
The joint statement of the Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development on the “Doctrine of Discovery” came early Thursday in Michigan. The statement was historic because it repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which for almost 500 years provided the basis for Europeans nations to justify and legitimize their taking of Indigenous lands throughout the world, including in the Americas, Africa, and Australia.
Scholars have argued that the doctrine originated in a series of papal bulls—or decrees—that granted permission to colonial powers such as Spain and Portugal to seize lands in the “New World” — providing the people living on the lands were not Christians.
Thursday’s statement cites three papal bulls: the Bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493). The latter decreed in 1493, one year after Columbus first arrived in what are now known as the Americas.
The historic statement was welcomed news until you got past the headline and began to read the 9-point statement. Upon examination, the statement lacks real teeth in that the Vatican fails to accept accountability and admit its sins for a doctrine set forth in the name of Christianity or, more specifically, the Catholic Church.
Some Native American friends who are well-versed on the topic compared the repudiation to Pope Francis’ apology last year in Canada for the horrific deeds committed against innocent Indigenous students in residential schools. In that apology, Francis blamed individuals versus the Catholic Church. Similarly, Thursday’s statement denied that doctrine was never fully sanctioned by the Church.
“In what could have been a groundbreaking and historic repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Vatican instead released a series of political statements that sought to rewrite history, shield the Catholic Church from legal liability and shift the blame for the Doctrine of Discovery to governmental and colonial powers,” Mark Charles, author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, said to Native News Online.
Two-thirds into the document, the sixth point reads: “The ‘doctrine of discovery’ is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.”
While the Catholic Church still chooses to deny their sins, the truth is that governments around the world have long justified their taking of the Indigenous lands because of the doctrine’s Christian authorship.
The government of the United States was heavily influenced by the doctrine in 1823, when the U.S. Supreme Court used it as the basis for its ruling that Indigenous people had only the rights of occupancy, not ownership, over lands on which they dwelled. This made way for non-Natives to seize Native lands across the country and commit acts of genocide that led to the near annihilation of our ancestors.
As recently as 2005, the Doctrine of Discovery was used by the Supreme Court to justify limiting the expansion of the Oneida Nation in the Sherrill v. Oneida Nation of New York case when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited it in the majority opinion she crafted. The Court, she wrote, must prevent “the Tribe from rekindling the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold.”
It’s unfortunate that Justice Ginsburg failed to recognize that the Doctrine of Discovery was created to extinguish our sovereignty — and millions of our ancestors. Even today, we still live with the consequences of those decrees written a half-millennia ago. But I’m also reminded that the embers of some fires can burn for months or even years.
I am grateful to the Creator that some of our ancestors survived so that we are still here as tribal nations, in spite of the sins of the Catholic Church.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
About the Author: "Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net."
Tribal leaders in Wisconsin applaud Vatican’s repudiation of 'Doctrine of Discovery': ‘It’s good to hear that recognition, however late it is’
Frank Vaisvilas, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Mon, April 3, 2023
Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada, on July 26, 2022. The Vatican on Thursday, March 30, 2023, responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.More
GREEN BAY - After more than half a millennium, the Catholic Church finally repudiated its Doctrine of Discovery, which civil rights advocates say gave Europeans the belief they had the moral license to steal land from Indigenous people.
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s good to hear that recognition, however late it is,” said Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens, vice chairman of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. “The Doctrine was the basis for the dispossession of Indigenous lands.”
FILE - Oneida Nation Vice Chairman Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens is shown in this file photo.
The Doctrine was a series of papal bulls from the Middle Ages from the Vatican that essentially permitted Christian European nations to subjugate and spread forced Christianity on Indigenous people in the Americas and Africa, as well as steal their lands.
The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine on March 30, responding to demands from Indigenous groups.
“The Doctrine has become the foundation of people’s understanding relative to North America and its original inhabitants,” said the Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “The settlers had a sense of understanding that their mission was for God and king. That understanding has become part of our psyche. It’s ingrained in our laws and was part of the idea of Manifest Destiny. It’s not just history, but still happening today.”
Experts say the Doctrine was incorporated into some U.S. laws that allowed the government to take Indigenous lands.
“While the Vatican’s decision to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery is the right one, it downplays the Church’s role and accountability for the harm it has caused to Native peoples,” said Deborah Park, CEO of the Minneapolis-based National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “It does not change the fact that the Church’s views gave permission to colonizers to take Native lands and assimilate Native peoples. This doctrine imposed itself into U.S. policies and played a crucial role in justifying the genocide of Native peoples. It gave colonizers the ‘go ahead’ to steal land and kill Native children and destroy families.”
Indigenous advocates believe church leaders in the past had used the Doctrine to justify forcefully assimilating Indigenous children in the infamous boarding schools of history. Several of these boarding schools had been located in Wisconsin.
Boarding schools in Wisconsin: 'People need to know what happened': Wisconsin tribes, families welcome federal scrutiny of Indian boarding school system
"We demand more transparency (from the Catholic Church), including access to Indian boarding school documents, which they have refused to provide. We demand that the Church returns lands to the Tribal Nations in which it operated Indian boarding schools,” Park said. “We demand that the Church supports the Truth and Healing Bill, which would establish a federal commission and conduct a full inquiry into the assimilative policies of U.S. Indian boarding schools.”
Deborah Haaland, the first Native American woman to lead the Department of the Interior, announced the Federal Board School Initiative in 2021, which includes a comprehensive review of the horrific legacy of federal boarding school policies.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland celebrate the announcement of the expansion of areas of three national monuments at the White House on October 8, 2021. The Biden administration restored the areas of two Utah parks with lands held sacred by several Native American tribes, Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts of the New England coast, after former President Donald Trump opened them to mining, drilling and development during his time in office.
"We are aware of the complicated history of the residential schools, and the Catholic Church’s involvement in running these schools in the United States,” read a previous statement from the Diocese of Green Bay. “We remain committed to understanding our history of involvement with Native American communities in the Diocese of Green Bay as we work towards a place of healing for all."
Justine Lodl, spokesperson for the Diocese, said the March 30 formal announcement from the Vatican speaks for itself and they have nothing further to add.
The Diocese of Green Bay is headquartered at 1825 Riverside Drive in Allouez, Wis.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, released a statement saying that there were times in history when church leaders failed to fully oppose the destructive and immoral actions of the competing colonial powers against Indigenous people.
“As a Church, it is important for us to fully understand how our words have been used and misused to justify acts that would be abhorrent to Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “We hope for more dialogue among Indigenous and Catholic scholars to promote greater and wider understanding of this difficult history.”
Local church leaders say more needs to be done.
“The Vatican's statement is a long-needed recognition of the tragic and devastating consequences that the Doctrine of Discovery has had on Indigenous peoples around the world,” said the Rev. Peter Bakken, justice and witness coordinator for the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “But as Christian churches we must do much more to take full responsibility for our active role in the dispossession, oppression and genocide of Native peoples. We have to take costly, meaningful action to repair the damage that has been done, actively pursue justice for Native communities, and join them in working for the well-being of all people and for the health of our common home.”
The Wisconsin Council of Churches includes 34 member churches.
Yellowbird-Stevens said the repudiation of the Doctrine may help some people understand history better as tribal leaders do today. And that history is a major factor in tribal responses today.
He said, “I think it’s a beginning of a better understanding of the tribes’ position reacquiring our original homeland.”
Dig deeper:
Indigenous exhibits: Exhibits in this Wisconsin city on Native American boarding schools and violence against Indigenous women are leaving some in tears
Boarding school survivors: 'They never broke my spirit': Survivors of Indian schools on Menominee Reservation demand Catholic church to acknowledge abuse
Landcestry: Wisconsin’s story doesn't start with Jean Nicolet. A brief history of forced relocation and 'landcestry.'
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.You can directly support his work with a tax-deductible donation online at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin tribes applaud Vatican repudiation of Doctrine of Discovery
Frank Vaisvilas, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Mon, April 3, 2023
Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada, on July 26, 2022. The Vatican on Thursday, March 30, 2023, responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.More
GREEN BAY - After more than half a millennium, the Catholic Church finally repudiated its Doctrine of Discovery, which civil rights advocates say gave Europeans the belief they had the moral license to steal land from Indigenous people.
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s good to hear that recognition, however late it is,” said Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens, vice chairman of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. “The Doctrine was the basis for the dispossession of Indigenous lands.”
FILE - Oneida Nation Vice Chairman Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens is shown in this file photo.
The Doctrine was a series of papal bulls from the Middle Ages from the Vatican that essentially permitted Christian European nations to subjugate and spread forced Christianity on Indigenous people in the Americas and Africa, as well as steal their lands.
The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine on March 30, responding to demands from Indigenous groups.
“The Doctrine has become the foundation of people’s understanding relative to North America and its original inhabitants,” said the Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “The settlers had a sense of understanding that their mission was for God and king. That understanding has become part of our psyche. It’s ingrained in our laws and was part of the idea of Manifest Destiny. It’s not just history, but still happening today.”
Experts say the Doctrine was incorporated into some U.S. laws that allowed the government to take Indigenous lands.
“While the Vatican’s decision to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery is the right one, it downplays the Church’s role and accountability for the harm it has caused to Native peoples,” said Deborah Park, CEO of the Minneapolis-based National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “It does not change the fact that the Church’s views gave permission to colonizers to take Native lands and assimilate Native peoples. This doctrine imposed itself into U.S. policies and played a crucial role in justifying the genocide of Native peoples. It gave colonizers the ‘go ahead’ to steal land and kill Native children and destroy families.”
Indigenous advocates believe church leaders in the past had used the Doctrine to justify forcefully assimilating Indigenous children in the infamous boarding schools of history. Several of these boarding schools had been located in Wisconsin.
Boarding schools in Wisconsin: 'People need to know what happened': Wisconsin tribes, families welcome federal scrutiny of Indian boarding school system
"We demand more transparency (from the Catholic Church), including access to Indian boarding school documents, which they have refused to provide. We demand that the Church returns lands to the Tribal Nations in which it operated Indian boarding schools,” Park said. “We demand that the Church supports the Truth and Healing Bill, which would establish a federal commission and conduct a full inquiry into the assimilative policies of U.S. Indian boarding schools.”
Deborah Haaland, the first Native American woman to lead the Department of the Interior, announced the Federal Board School Initiative in 2021, which includes a comprehensive review of the horrific legacy of federal boarding school policies.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland celebrate the announcement of the expansion of areas of three national monuments at the White House on October 8, 2021. The Biden administration restored the areas of two Utah parks with lands held sacred by several Native American tribes, Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts of the New England coast, after former President Donald Trump opened them to mining, drilling and development during his time in office.
"We are aware of the complicated history of the residential schools, and the Catholic Church’s involvement in running these schools in the United States,” read a previous statement from the Diocese of Green Bay. “We remain committed to understanding our history of involvement with Native American communities in the Diocese of Green Bay as we work towards a place of healing for all."
Justine Lodl, spokesperson for the Diocese, said the March 30 formal announcement from the Vatican speaks for itself and they have nothing further to add.
The Diocese of Green Bay is headquartered at 1825 Riverside Drive in Allouez, Wis.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, released a statement saying that there were times in history when church leaders failed to fully oppose the destructive and immoral actions of the competing colonial powers against Indigenous people.
“As a Church, it is important for us to fully understand how our words have been used and misused to justify acts that would be abhorrent to Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “We hope for more dialogue among Indigenous and Catholic scholars to promote greater and wider understanding of this difficult history.”
Local church leaders say more needs to be done.
“The Vatican's statement is a long-needed recognition of the tragic and devastating consequences that the Doctrine of Discovery has had on Indigenous peoples around the world,” said the Rev. Peter Bakken, justice and witness coordinator for the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “But as Christian churches we must do much more to take full responsibility for our active role in the dispossession, oppression and genocide of Native peoples. We have to take costly, meaningful action to repair the damage that has been done, actively pursue justice for Native communities, and join them in working for the well-being of all people and for the health of our common home.”
The Wisconsin Council of Churches includes 34 member churches.
Yellowbird-Stevens said the repudiation of the Doctrine may help some people understand history better as tribal leaders do today. And that history is a major factor in tribal responses today.
He said, “I think it’s a beginning of a better understanding of the tribes’ position reacquiring our original homeland.”
Dig deeper:
Indigenous exhibits: Exhibits in this Wisconsin city on Native American boarding schools and violence against Indigenous women are leaving some in tears
Boarding school survivors: 'They never broke my spirit': Survivors of Indian schools on Menominee Reservation demand Catholic church to acknowledge abuse
Landcestry: Wisconsin’s story doesn't start with Jean Nicolet. A brief history of forced relocation and 'landcestry.'
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.You can directly support his work with a tax-deductible donation online at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin tribes applaud Vatican repudiation of Doctrine of Discovery
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