Indians ask Francis to revoke papal bull

Native Americans to new Pope: Recant the ‘Discovery Doctrine,’ which gave Catholics dominion over New World

Papal bull from 1400s treated American Indians as cattle. Ruling still applies today.

By Stephen Rex BrownA 15th century Catholic decree permitting Europeans to seize Indian land in the New World is a load of papal bull.

That was the message Tuesday from the Onondaga Nation, which is calling on the new Pope to revoke the so-called Discovery Doctrine, which evolved from a papal decree written by Pope Nicholas V in 1455.

“Now is the time for the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church to extend a hand and talk about these issues,” said Tonya Frichner, the president of the American Indian Law Alliance.

The Discovery Doctrine was a key element in the moral justification of the European conquest of indigenous people around the world and remains influential in legal circles.

In the U.S., it is often cited as a way of arguing that the nomadic Native Americans occupied the land but did not own it.

“The doctrine of discovery put us in the same place as the buffaloes and rabbits, roaming the land,” said Oren Lyons, a faith keeper of the Turtle Clan in the Onondaga nation. “We didn't have right of title to land, but rather occupancy.”Comment:  For more on the Doctrine of Discovery, see "Chosen People" = Conquerers and Killers and Unitarians Repudiate Doctrine of Discovery.

Below:  "Pope Nicholas V—it was his papal bull that led to the Discovery Doctrine."

Unitarians repudiate Doctrine of Discovery

Unitarian congregation repudiates Doctrine of Discovery

Third church to join repudiation movement

By Gale Courey ToensingA Unitarian Universalist congregation in Florida has issued a Statement of Conscience repudiating the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and urging the United States government to adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Tarpon Springs is the oldest Unitarian congregation in the state and the Statement of Conscience is the first it has issued in its 125 years of existence.

“It’s a really big deal in our faith,” said Dan Callaghan, the man who initiated the action in his church.

The Tarpon congregation is the third religious group in the U.S. in less than a year to disavow the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and support the adoption of the Declaration.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Quakers Renounce Doctrine of Discovery and Episcopal Church Repudiates Doctrine of Discovery.

Below:  "Dan Callaghan, a member of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Tarpon Springs, has led the congregation to adopt a Statement of Conscience that repudiates the Doctrine of Discovery, urges the government to remove it from U.S. law, and adopt and implement the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The UUC of Tarpon Springs acknowledges 'truth as the only authority.'"

Indian remains = specimens

d'Errico:  Kafka meets NAGPRA:  When research becomes stalling

By Peter d’ErricoThe acquisition and holding of human remains by a museum or academic institution is said to be different from grave robbing. Institutional grave robbing is described as scientific research. This argument goes back a long way. As David Hurst Thomas, author of “Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity,” writes, “Thomas Jefferson, America’s first scientific archaeologist, argued that Indians could--and really should--be studied as part of the rest of nature. Jefferson defined American Indians as specimens. …”

This kind of “specimen” thinking is related to the doctrine of “Christian discovery:” the idea that non-Christian peoples are not fully human. In this view, the remains of indigenous peoples are not sacred like the remains of Christians. The historical development of academic and museum collections and research claims of “studying” Native American remains is rooted in this religious racism. Indigenous burial grounds are like rocks and ore--part of the earth, available for “discovery,” digging, collection and examination.

Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, speaking in favor of NAGPRA’s passage in 1990, said: “When human remains are displayed in museums or historical societies, it is never the bones of white soldiers or the first European settlers that came to this continent that are lying in glass cases. It is Indian remains. … This is racism.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see Kennewick Man, Captain Picard, and Political Correctness.