Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery

A Journey of Healing:

Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery

A Workshop

Sunday June 9, 2013, from 2 to 3 pm

Sponsored by peace, Social, Earth Care Committee

Concord Friends Meeting

11Oxbow Pond Road, Canterbury, NH

Potluck lunch at 12:00

The Doctrine of Discovery is the world view that a certain group of people, primarily Western Christendom, based on their religious identity (Christianity) had the moral Sanction, beginning in 1452 from the pope, to invade and colonize the land of non-Christian people:  to dominate them, take their possessions and resources, enslave and Kill them.  These sanctions and practices continue to this day.  NEYM isconsidering repudiating this doctrine and searching for ways to heal these wounds.

Facilitated by

• Jamie Bissonette Lewey - Chair, Maine Indian Tribal State Commission, Director, AFSC Healing Justice Program
• Plansowes Dana- Passamaquoddy, Admin.  Assistant at the Waponahki Museum and Resource Center, Maine
• Mother Bear, Mashpee-Wampanoag Clan Mother
• Rachel Carey-Harper, Recorder and clerk of Racial, Economic, and Social Justice of NEYM

Contact: psecc [at] concordfriendsmeeting [dot] org

A Path Toward Healing: a year of study on the Doctrine of Christian Discovery

The Workshops on the Doctrine of Discovery are a project of the Racial Social and Economic Justice Committee of the NEYM with technical assistance provided by the American Friends Service Committee Healing Justice Program.  To schedule a workshop, contact: Rachel Carey Harper rch [at] cape [dot] com

HANDOUT: QUAKER INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS

Riverside School

Begun by U.S. Quaker Agents 1871 this school opened at the Indian agency on Sugar Creek with 8 pupils.  A new building was erected as a boarding school in 1872 for Wichita and Caddo children.  Fire in 1878 destroyed the school.  It soon reopened in a new building here on the Washita and continues as the oldestboarding school in the United States Indian Service,

In, 1871, Jonathan Richards, the first Reservation Agent, with A. J. Standing, organized the first school at the Old Wichita Indian Agency Commissary.  After much bribing, only eight students wearing traditional clothing, moccasins and braids laid the foundation for Riverside Indian School.

The following year more space was needed to accommodate students.  A new building was erected to accommodate a small force of employees and about forty students.  The school was then known as the Wichita-Caddo School, located at the foot of a large hill one mile east of the present school site.  A fire, resulting in the tragic loss of one life, occurred in 1878.  The school was then re-established at the present location.  In 1893, the capacity of the institution was sixty students with only Wichita, Caddo and Delaware tribes represented.

In the fall of 1922, Kiowa tribal students began attending with the abolishment of the Rainy Mountain Indian School.  With the influx of other tribes the government allotted more money to finance the school.

In 1929, new buildings were constructed accommodating one hundred-fifty- five boys, marking a new era for Riverside.  New buildings, modern and fully equipped took the place of the original buildings.  In 1935, the gymnasium was completed.  The southern section of the present day school building was built in 1937.  Seven cottage dormitories were completed in 1941 and are still in use today.

In 1945, the Navajo Tribe located in the Southwest began attending Riverside.

2013 Riverside Indian School ~ 101 Riverside Drive ~ Anadarko, OK 73005 ~ (888) 886-2029. Website Last Modified 04/01/2013 13:16:32

205 - 206 IN THE COURTS OF THE CONQUEROR

Walter Echo-Hawk

Inre Can-ah-couqua: Guardianship Alaska-Style

The poignant- case of In Can-ah-couqua (1887) shows how guardianship can run roughshod over personal liberty and parental rights.⁶⁸ Can-ah-couqua was a Tlingit mother who placed her five-year-old son into a Presbyterian mission school in Sitka, Alaska, supported by a BIA contract paying $11.25 per month to the school for each Indian student.  She surrendered her son, Can-ca-dach, to the missionary school so he could be educated, but changed her mind three years later.  When school officials refused to release him, Can-ah-couqua filed a petition for habeas corpus against the superintendent and chaplain alleging they were unlawfully restraining his liberty, contrary to her will and wishes as his mother.

The federal court denied the petition, stating, "the policy of the government is to aid these mission schools in the great Christian enterprise of rescuing from lives of barbarism and savagery these Indians, and conferring upon them the benefits of an educated civilization.  Case closed.  The best interests of Can-ca-dach dictated that the child be detained by missionaries.  If parents can simply withdraw their children from federally funded mission schools "at their own pleasure, this would render all efforts of both the government and missions to civilize them abortive.”  70 The court relied upon the federal-trust doctrine to support its harsh ruling-even though only Presbyterians were being sued, the court obviously considered church and state to be one:

These Alaska Indians are dependent allies, under the protection of the laws, and subject to such restraints in their tribal relations as may be deemed necessary for their own shelter, promotion, and protection, and they must realize the binding force of their obligations ... 1 cannot escape the conclusion that the best interests of this child imperatively require that he should be remanded to the custody of the superintendent of the mission ... sound morals, the good order and protection of civilized society, unmistakably demand it, the court has no alternative.⁷¹

The mother, who was considered "rude and untutored." living a "profligate and dissolute life," still had natural affection and a mother's love-she was granted visitation privileges "when her presence will not interfere with recitations or study ... under surveillance of the superintendent or his subordinates a reasonable length of time, but shall not be permitted to take him away without order of the court.”  72 Guardianship rights of the government and its Presbyterian proxies take precedence over those of parent and child when you are a ward of the government in Alaska.  Life would never be the same for mother or child, a family broken, for the good of the government's "great Christian enterprise."

Legal Framework for Removal*

‘All page citations to German law in this table are to the Nazi statutes, decrees, and regulations that appear in Joseph Walk, ed., Das Sonderrecht für die Juden im NS-Staat : Eine Sammlung der gesetzlichen Maßnahmen und Richtlinien - Inhalt und Bedeutung (Heidelberg, Germany: C. F. Muller Juristishcer Verlag, 1981) (meaning Rights of Privilege for the Jews in the Nazi State: [what followed was not copied]

The Age of Discovery

Claims of Christian dominion over Indigenous Peoples and their lands served European monarchies as a means offending off competing monarchies and de-legitimating the long-established autonomous Indigenous Peoples' governments.

The Doctrine of Christian Discovery is the worldview that a certain group of people: primarily Western Christendom, based on their religious identity, had moral sanction and the support of international law to invade and colonize the lands of non-Christian Peoples, to dominate them, take their possessions and resources, and enslave and kill them.

The Doctrine of Discovery is used in particular by former British colonies, specifically, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

What is found in the Doctrine of Discovery?

♦Criteria for claiming land.

♦Transfer of the land.

♦Government by agent or proxy.

♦Coercion and subjugation of whole peoples.

♦Incorporation of a diminished and impermanent status into secular laws.

♦Double standards among international conventions.

Footprints of the Doctrine of Discovery

Elements of the Doctrine have rationalized heinous behaviors against Indigenous Peoples through the centuries. Forced removals such as the Trail of Tears, the seizure of natural resources, the destruction of traditional languages and cultures, the sterilization of Indian women, and the disruption of Indigenous communities are examples of implementation of the concepts of "discovery" and "dominance." The Vatican papal bulls of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries actively encouraged the subjugation of Indigenous Nations and the enslavement of African people. The secularization of the Doctrine in the United States and elsewhere perpetuated subjugation and its consequences. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Cannon of US Federal Indian Law.

Effects of the DOCD Today

The development of policies without the full knowledge and prior informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.

Diminished protection of human rights.

The "New Jim Crow" and mass incarceration of people of color as modern slavery. (Thirteenth Amendment)

The diminished and impermanent status of Indigenous Peoples under the Doctrine of Discovery is contrary to their right to sustain themselves in perpetuity as distinct peoples.

A concept of occupancy ("Indian title") is inconsistent with the constitutional status of treaties. (Treaties are the highest law of the land, equal to the constitution.)

Conflicts arising when Indigenous Peoples exercise self-determination bring them in conflict with governments and corporations that rely on the legal lineage of the Doctrine to assert claims on natural resources, such as coal, oil, uranium, natural gas and

Bibliography

In the Courts of the Conqueror: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decidedby Walter Echo-Hawk, Fulcrum Publishing, 2010

The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness,Michelle Alexander, New Press, 2010

Helpful Websites

http://tonatierra.org

http://doctrineofdiscoveryforum.blogspot.com

http://www.doctrineofdiscovery.org/index.htm

Contact Information

The Workshops on the Doctrine of Discovery are a project of the Racial Social and Economic Justice Committee of the New England Yearly Meeting with technical assistance provided by the American Friends Service Committee Healing Justice Program. To schedule a workshop, contact:  Rachel Carey Harper rch [at] cape [dot] com