Listen to the podcast on Megaphone, Spotify or Apple.

Credits

• Hosts: Mitch and Tanner Randall, Good Faith Media.
• Executive producers: Mitch Randall, Good Faith Media; Philip P. Arnold and Sandy Bigtree, Indigenous Values Initiative; and Adam DJ Brett, Syracuse University and American Indian Law Alliance.
• Producer: Cliff Vaughn.
• Editor: David Pang.
• Music: Pond5.
• Production Assistance: American Indian Law Alliance.
• Sponsors: The Henry Luce Foundation; Syracuse University; Indigenous Values Initiative; American Indian Law Alliance; American Indian Community House; Good Faith Media; Tonatierra; and Toward Our Common Public Life. We appreciate your support.

Interested authors should submit a 150-300 word abstract, a 150–300 word biography, your resume/cv (if available), and a sample of a previous published article no later than September 30, 2022. The goal of this partnership is to support and amplify Indigenous voices pertaining to the Doctrine of Discovery, so priority will be given to Indigenous Peoples working in this area.

Each essay should be geared towards an interested and engaged public and undergraduate audience. Our first high-priority interest is in the following core topics:

• 200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh (JvM): Indigenous Responses to the Religious Foundations of Racism
• The Doctrine of Discovery and Law
• The religious dimensions of the Doctrine of Discovery
• The Doctrine of Discovery as a global phenomenon (international)
• The environmental impact of the Doctrine of Discovery
• Doctrine of Discovery and Indian Boarding/Residential Schools
• And other Doctrine of Discovery related topics.

Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by October 1, 2022. First drafts or full essays are due by December 1, 2022, and final versions are due January 15, 2022. All authors must note their educational and social background in their biographies. Only original previously unpublished works will be considered. Authors implicitly agree to the terms of our Creative Commons License. We seek to amplify and prioritize submissions from Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island/Abya Yala. We also interested in an international range of scholarly contributions.

About the Project

The Doctrine of Discovery Project (doctrineofdiscovery.org) is a collaborative interdisciplinary open educational resource designed for use in higher education. It is being funded by the Henry Luce Foundation Grant, “200 Years of Johnson v. McIntosh: Indigenous Responses to the Religious Foundations of Racism,” for 3 years (2022-24).

About the Principal Investigator

Prof. Philip P. Arnold (Religion, Syracuse University) has been writing and working on Indigenous issues for over 30 years. With Sandy Bigtree (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation), they founded the not-for-profit Indigenous Values Initiative where they launched the Doctrine of Discovery Project site in 2009-2010. To learn more see: “Examining the History and Consequences of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery.”

Submission form

if you have any issues with the form please email your materials to info@indigenousvalues.org instead.

Act Now to Support Indigenous Schools

New York State has consistently underfunded the three schools

serving Indigenous students on their own nations for decades

As part of the historic treaty relationship between the Haudenosaunee and the United States, the US is responsible for providing healthcare and education to Indigenous communities. Unfortunately, these treaties have been repeatedly ignored and broken. This history includes the appalling boarding school era, where the motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man” was carried out across the continent. Indigenous communities survived through resilience and determination. Almost every public school building in New York New York State is owned by the School District in that community, except for three schools on Indigenous Nations – the Onondaga Nation School (Lafayette School District), the Tuscarora Nation School (Niagara Wheatfield School District) and the St. Regis Mohawk School (Salmon River School District).

NYS is responsible for maintaining the buildings which house these three schools. They have been terribly underfunded for decades – leaving them with major facilities problems – crumbling brick walls, poorly functioning heating and cooling systems, dangerously degraded concrete, inadequate security and fire protection and much more. The superintendents of those districts describe them as among “the worst building conditions in NYS.”

New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan, approved in January 2018, emphasizes fostering equity in education for all students and ensuring that all students succeed and thrive in school no matter who they are, where they live, where they go to school, or where they come from. It specifically mentions historically disadvantaged students.

Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) is joining with others across NYS in calling for Governor Cathy Hochul to include $60 million in the 2022-23 NYS Budget, $20 million for each of these three schools, plus $6 million ($2 million per school) on an annual basis for maintenance and improvements moving forward. We ask people to contact Governor Hochul during December to urge her to include this funding in her Executive budget proposal when she submits it to the legislature in January.

Take Action Online Now

Customize this sample letter to send to Governor Hochul.

Contact Information

Governor Kathy Hochul
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Phone 518-474-8390

TOOLS For Organizing

• Informational Handout – Background Information on one side and a sample letter to Governor Hochul on the back
• Postcard to Print – Two sided document to create 4 postcards to be sent to Governor Hochul (print two sided)
• Slideshow on Funding Inequity – This slideshow was created by the Superintendents of the three Indigenous Schools and includes detailed information about the problems
• Letter to Governor Hochul from the 3 Superintendents
• Article from Onondaga Nation website about the three superintendents advocating for increased funding

In his article, Wilkins calls the discovery doctrine “one of the most important tenets of federal Indian law.” He points out that it has “gained general acceptance.” But he cautions that the doctrine has been “misused to distort perceptions of past and present oppressions.” Yet rather than provide a clear means of arguing against the doctrine and challenging it, he says that U.S. government officials should never mention or write about the doctrine.

Read more

…maybe the problem with religious freedom is simply that it conceals deeper political controversies—about reproductive justice in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) or Indigenous sovereignty in Smith. Indeed, when the question of Indigenous sovereignty has been recently brought in front of the Supreme Court, in McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), it was a Trump appointee—Neil Gorsuch—who wrote the celebrated court decision in what is considered to be “probably the most significant Indian law case in well over one hundred years.” Maybe the problem is not Trump’s court; maybe the problem has always been religious freedom.

Read more at the Berkley Center.

As we are now confronted with environmental devastation, global pandemics, an economic system that fosters chaos in the world, and an inability to think clearly or collectively toward a viable way to the future, perhaps it is time to pick up where the Founding Fathers left off and continue to learn from the Haudenosaunee. What better time than now to consider the ancient wisdom of our ancestors who, for thousands of years, sustained a more equitable way of living in proper relationship with the natural world? Who better to model a world where women reside at the center of deliberations and nature exists as our relative—not just a resource?

Sponsors:

• Syracuse University Humanities Center
• Syracuse University Department of Religion
• Skä•noñh – Great Law of Peace Center
• Indigenous Values Initiative

Presenters:

• Philip P. Arnold (Syracuse University, Religion)
• Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (University of Buffalo, Transnational Studies)
• Jake Haiwhagai’i Edwards (Onondaga Nation)
• Andrea Smith (Lafayette College, Anthropology)
• Robert Venables (Cornell, emeritus).

Date of Event: Saturday 10 October 11-1:00pm

RSVP: Facebook

Virtual event platform:

• Streaming on Facebook: @SkaNonhCenter, @IndigenousValues
• Streaming on Twitter: @SkaNonhCenter, @IndigenousVI
• Streaming on YouTube: @IndigenousValuesInitiative

Download event flyer as a image or as a pdf.

We should reclaim Onondaga as the center of American Democracy.  A stance of neutrality is no longer acceptable as we now stand witness to murders that happen before our eyes on the evening news. Today, being “non-racist” means to be passively complicit which allows for violence and injustice to continue. As anti-racists, we must now move to end racism.

Mayor Walsh’s statement regarding to appoint an advisory panel to again study the Columbus statue, unfortunately further delays the inevitable. The Talking Circles were conducted by InterFaith Works, in the hopes of finding the “Common Ground” between those who honor Columbus—the perpetrator who introduced genocide to the Americas, and those who still suffer the oppression from what Columbus initiated. Since the Age of Discovery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Indigenous Peoples have been forced under the domination of the Church as a means to silence their voices, destroy their cultures, and convert them to Christianity. These religious institutions continue to perpetuate oppression and are no longer acceptable in determining when and how Indigenous Peoples should speak. As was stated by Resilient Indigenous Action Collective at the 27 June protest, healing can only begin when the Columbus Statue is removed. Now is the time to take bold and decisive action. The people have spoken on this issue.

At the Skä·noñh—the  Great Law of Peace Center it was crucial that we present for the first time a clear Haudenosaunee voice, that was unhindered by the Jesuit narrative of conquest that for nearly 90 years had been communicated at the “French Fort.” We’ve all been inundated with colonial texts that served to control history by selectively omitting what actually happened, and by silencing the voices of those who survived. Indigenous Peoples need to reclaim their right to speak, and we need to listen. The Founding Fathers saw great potential in how borrowing from the Haudenosaunee’s Great Binding Peace could help form a more perfect union. We need to revisit these ancient teachings to once again help steer us toward a more equitable future for humankind and our relatives of the natural world.

The debate on whether to remove Columbus from downtown Syracuse reflects the struggle of finding the soul of Syracuse. The choice for us is clear, we either fully embrace equitable democratic principles for everyone or we will reinforce the ongoing undercurrent of fascism that has been slowly seeping into our government since the late 18^th century.  We are at that critical edge right now.

Italians have a strong presence in Syracuse, and their many contributions greatly enriched our American lives. Let’s celebrate that. But we mustn’t forget the discriminatory injustices held against Italian Americans just a few generations ago.  During the Great Migrations of the 19^th and 20^th centuries they were subjected to the same racial profiling and violence that many People of Color (POC) experience today.  In 1891 11 Italians were lynched in New Orleans, while in other parts of the country, they were aligning themselves to Columbus to legitimize their citizenship. Today, however, Italian Americans no longer experience these same threats of racism and oppression. We must now re-examine why Columbus, who has since been revealed as the iconic face of world domination, should remain celebrated a hero, especially when so many around the world still feel the oppression of what he represents:

1. Columbus never visited what is now the United States. All 4 of his voyages were confined to what is now known as the Caribbean Islands and Central America.
2. Columbus was arrested after his 3rd voyage for “tyranny and brutality” and was sent back to Spain in irons to serve his sentence. In 2006, a 48-page report was discovered of his crimes of brutality against Indigenous Peoples and other colonists. Following one slaughter of an Indigenous community, he paraded their dismembered bodies throughout the city streets.  Columbus was much more than a “flawed human being,” as was suggested by Governor Cuomo, but rather a mass-murderer—one not even tolerated by the standards of his time. Remember, the Spanish Crown was responsible for the bloody Spanish Inquisition!
3. In 1934, the Columbus statue was gifted to the Italian community by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He not only created the Fascist Movement, but also supported Adolph Hitler’s quickly rising Nazi party. Mussolini paid for shipping the statue, had the body enlarged and requested that the inscription “Columbo Cristobal Discoverer of America” be prominently displayed.
4. Columbus was sailing under the auspices of what is now known as the Doctrines of Christian Discovery (DoCD), which was an extension of the 12^th century Christian Crusades. In a series of 15^th century Papal declarations, Christian explorers were mandated to seize and enslave non-Christians, take their lands and property for the express purpose of expanding the Christian Empire (Christendom). Portuguese and Spanish sailors set out to invade West Africa and the Americas, looking for gold, slaves and colonial outposts. These trips funded the Church’s exploits in their quest for world domination. The DoCD persists today as a fundamental aspect of law that continues to oppress Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.

For some, Columbus might stand as a symbol of Italian-American liberation, but for others he stands as the bearer of Christian domination, loss of cultural identity, destruction and commodification of the land, and representative of brutal fascism, white supremacy and tyranny. He has no connection to the American Democratic ideals that are now under threat.  In opposition to Claudia Tenney’s comments, this is precisely WHY Columbus needs to come down. His life, legacy and what he represents, inhibits our ability to function as an inclusive democratic society. The fact that Columbus is coming down all over the United States is a message of hope for all those whose lives were lost so others could live their American dream.

The opinions of Betty Lyons and Milton Norman Franson suggest a more inclusive vision that returns to those Indigenous roots to American Democracy which would make us unique in the world, and stand as a monument to the Great Peacemaker in our city center.  When we built the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center it was to finally celebrate the Haudenosaunee and the contributions they have made.  Our cherished form of participatory Democracy, is the message that was delivered at the shore of Onondaga Lake over 1,000 years ago by the Peacemaker. We need to return to the Indigenous Values that inspired American Democracy, the early Suffragists, new sustainable ways of agriculture, lacrosse, & the values needed to truly know peace. Which legacy do you wish to leave your children?

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(1238 words)

Philip P. Arnold | Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Syracuse University

Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center | Founding Director

Indigenous Values Initiative

Sandy Bigtree | Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne

Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center | Collaborative

Indigenous Values Initiative