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 Only original previously unpublished works will be considered.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.

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?

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

Tupac Enrique Acosta

Tupac Enrique Acosta, (Izkaloteka Mexica Azteca), TONATIERRA, One of the original conveners of the gathering of Tlahtokan Aztlan in 1984 in the O’otham Jeved Territories [Arizona] that sent a message to Pope John Paul II calling for the Vatican State to re-examine the fallacious principles of the Papal Bulls of Alexander VI purporting to grant “Domain” over the territories and Nations of Indigenous Peoples. This letter received a response via the Vatican Secretary of State in May 1984 from the office of the Bishop of Phoenix, which was incoherent, illogical, and paternalistic. Subsequent to 1984, TONATIERRA has been consistently advancing the DISMANTLING of the Doctrine of Discovery in a series of coordinated community campaigns led by Indigenous Peoples from the local-regional, continental-global contexts of geo-political reference, operating as Secretariat of the Continental Commission Abya Yala.

Philip P. Arnold

Dr. Philip P. Arnold, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. Associate Professor and Chair of Religion Department at Syracuse University as well as core faculty in Native American and Indigenous Studies.  He is the Founding Director of the Skä•noñh—the Great Law of Peace Center (www.skanonhcenter.org).  His books are Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan (1999); Sacred Landscapes and Cultural Politics: Planting a Tree (2001); The Gift of Sports: Indigenous Ceremonial Dimensions of the Games We Love (2012) and Urgency of Indigenous Values and the Future of Religion (University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming).  He is a founding member of Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON), (www.peacecouncil.net/NOON/index.html) and established the Doctrine of Discovery Study Group (www.doctrineofdiscovery.org) He is President of the Indigenous Values Initiative (www.indigenousvalues.org), a non-profit organization to support the educational work of the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center.

Sandy Bigtree

Sandy Bigtree, (Mohawk Nation), Founding Board Member of the Indigenous Values Initiative. www.indigenousvalues.org With Philip Arnold, organized the: “Roots of Peacemaking” educational festivals at Onondaga Lake (2006-2007); the “Doctrine of Discovery Conference” in 2014; Co-edited the Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) educational booklet. She was an original Planning Committee member of Skä•noñh—the Great Law of Peace Center and currently sits on the Educational Collaborative committee. 1984-85, she was the Administrative Assistant to the American Indian Law Support Center at NARF in Boulder, CO, where she learned the stark difference between Indigenous Nationhood, “Federal Indian Law.” In 1980-82 performed with Native Americans in the Arts theatre troupe (an affiliate of the American Indian Community House) at LaMama, NYC, and toured the NE. From age 1-30, Sandy performed weekly on radio, TV with her sisters, and fronted her own band through the 1970s.

Jake Edwards

Jake Edwards (Onondaga Eel Clan) lives on the Onondaga Nation.  He maintains the continuity of our longhouse oral teachings. He was appointed by the Grand Council of Chiefs (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) to the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee to respectfully work on political and governmental structures beyond the borders of Haudenosaunee Country.  Jake is a board member of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples and a board member of the Indigenous Values Initiative, he is instrumental in preserving cultures and traditions of indigenous peoples. Jake was one of the primary voices leading the 400th anniversary (1613 – 2013) of the Two Row Wampum Campaign, paddling the waterways from the Onondaga Nation to the United Nations in NYC. He actively reminds people of the significance of our treaties and reflects upon decisions that will protect the people into the seventh generation. Jake explains how wampum laid the foundational principles and structure of the United States Constitution.

Abel Gomez

Abel R. Gómez (he/him/his) descends from Nicaraguan, Salvadorian, and Mexican lineages that migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, the homeland of the Ohlone peoples. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Religion Department and earned a Certificate of Advanced Studies from the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Syracuse University. Abel’s research and teaching focus on sacred sites, ritual, and decolonization in the context of contemporary Indigenous religions. Abel is currently completing his dissertation, an ethnography of sacred sites protection movements among Ohlone peoples of the San Francisco and Monterey regions. Abel is a steering committee member for the Native Traditions in the Americas Unit of the American Academy of Religion and recently served on the committee organizing the annual Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits Powwow in San Francisco. His public scholarship has been published on A Beautiful Resistance, Medium, and the ReligionForBreakfast YouTube Channel.

Joe Heath

Joe Heath has a long background and extensive experience in civil rights litigation as one of the four lawyers representing a class action against New York State for the 1971 Attica prison assault and brutality, resulting in a $12 million settlement in 2000.  In his 45 years of practice, Joe has also worked in criminal defense; constitutional law and protection of free speech and assembly; protection of abused and neglected children; and fighting domestic AND POLICE violence; and he also an active member of Veterans for Peace.

He has served as General Counsel for the Onondaga Nation since 1982, and his work centers on environmental protection, particularly under the Clean Water Act, focusing on Onondaga Lake and Onondaga Creek.

Because the Nation is deeply concerned with climate change, the Nation asked Joe to research the issues of fracking and shared his knowledge of the many different environmental dangers created by fracking with community groups for six (6) years.

His work for the Nation also focuses on archeological site and unmarked burial site protection; NAGPRA repatriation and litigation; hunting and fishing rights; treaty rights; and excise tax issues.  Additionally, the work for the Nation has included assisting in protecting Nation children, and working with the Indian Child Welfare Act.  One such ICWA case went as far as the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

He also took spend two weeks at Standing Rock in the fall of 2016, where he assisted in the legal tent, and later with the joint defense of 100s of criminal cases arising from the over-reaction of law enforcement to peaceful water protectors and in a joint effort to defeat a federal grand jury which was targeting water protectors.

His third law review article is an important work exposing the doctrine and is available at: Albany Government Law Review. Joe is also a decades long member of Veterans for Peace..

Tadodaho Sidney (Sid) Hill

Tadodaho Sidney (Sid) Hill, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Born to Eel Clanmother Phoebe Hill, Sid was raised in the traditional ways of the longhouse. After graduating Lafayette High School, Sid attended Syracuse University for two years. Sid then pursued a career in construction and was member of the Iron Workers union. Always an advocate for human rights and the environment, as a young man Sid traveled in 1973 with a delegation from the Onondaga Nation in support of the Oglala Lakota people on Pine Ridge in protest of corruption involving then Tribal President Richard Wilson and the failure of the United States Government to fulfill treaties. A lifelong lacrosse player, Sid is one of the founding members of the Iroquois National Team, Sid was chosen as the team captain for the Australia games in 1984. In 1996 Sid was chosen to “warm the seat” of the title of Tadodaho and was condoled in 2002. This title is unique as this lifetime position is the only title chosen by the other 49 chiefs of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. Today Sid focuses his attention on the many issues facing the nation and the environment. Sid is working daily on such issues as, International Indigenous issues, the Doctrine of Discovery, hydro fracking and commerce to name a few, together with all of the daily issues facing the Haudenosaunee. One of his most important responsibilities is ensuring we continue our traditional teachings. Sid takes part in the discussions at United Nations concerning the rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world. He has had the honor of opening the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for over ten years. He takes this responsibility extremely serious and has a deep understanding of how all decisions and actions impact the Haudenosaunee.

Beverley Jacobs

Beverley Jacobs, CM, LLB, LLM, PhD is a member of the Bear Clan, Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She is Associate Dean (Academic) at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor and she practices law part-time at her home community of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Beverley has obtained a Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Windsor in 1994, a Master of Law Degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Calgary in 2018. Beverley is also a consultant/researcher/writer/public speaker. Her work centres around ending gendered colonial violence against Indigenous people and restoring Indigenous laws, beliefs, values, and traditions.

Dana Lloyd

Dana Lloyd is a postdoctoral research associate at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a PhD in Religion from Syracuse University, and a law degree and an LLM from Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law. She is currently working on a book manuscript, entitled Arguing for this Land: Rethinking Indigenous Sacred Sites (under contract with University of Kansas Press).

Makayla Loeb

Makayla Loeb received her B.A. in Political Philosophy and History from Hunter College, where she was the President of Phi Sigma Tau and a member of the Dean’s List. She was accepted to the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University on a merit scholarship. She is in her second year of law school where she is pursuing her J.D. and an advanced certificate in environmental law. Her focus is in international environmental law, which brought her to work with the Global Center of Environmental Legal Studies and the International Council of Environmental Law. She is currently a summer research associate for the International Council of Environmental Law, where she is writing a memo in support of a proposed motion to renounce the so-called Doctrine of Discovery. Her memo will be the backdrop for the discussions and negotiations at the 2020 World Conservation Congress, where the motion will be voted on by the members of the International Union on the Conservation of Nature.

Gaeñ hia uh/Betty Lyons

Gaen hia uh (Small Sky), (Colonized Name: Betty Lyons), (Snipe Clan, Onondaga Nation), President & Executive Director of the  American Indian Law Alliance (AILA). She is an Indigenous and environmental activist and citizen of the Onondaga Nation. Growing up Ms. Lyons learned a deep respect for the earth and the responsibility to protect it. Ms. Lyons worked together with the NOON organization (Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation) to educate and teach local communities about the culture of the Onondaga Nation to further a better understanding and to bridge the gap between the communities. Ms. Lyons has participated and organized rallies and demonstrations pushing for a ban on fracking in New York State, until a ban was achieved in December 2014. Betty Lyons has worked for the Onondaga Nation for over nineteen years as a Public Relations Representative, Manager of the Onondaga Nation Arena, and as Executive Assistant to Tadodaho Sidney Hill. She has been an active participant at the annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) since the first session in 2001 and has coordinated the opening ceremonies. For over 10 years, Ms. Lyons was the President of Onondaga Minor Athletic Club where she organized and managed over 15 youth sports team programs. Betty Lyons graduated from Cazenovia College ALA (2013), Bryant Stratton College Graduate of Paralegal Program. Betty is sits on the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee. She is also the hardworking mother of Garrett and Sid Jr.

Oren Lyons

Oren Lyons ’58, H’93 Headlines August Conversations About the Doctrine of Discovery.

Angela Mooney D’Arcy

Angela Mooney D’Arcy, Acjachemen Nation, Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. Angela was born in her ancestral homelands whose traditional territories include the area now known as Orange County and raised in the ancestral homelands of the Osage, Kaw and Wichita Peoples. She has been working with Native Nations, Indigenous Peoples, grassroots and nonprofit organizations, artists, educators and institutions on environmental and cultural justice issues for nearly twenty years. She is the Executive Director and Founder of Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, an Indigenous-led, grassroots environmental justice organization dedicated to building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures. She co-founded the United Coalition to Protect Panhe, an alliance of Acjachemen people dedicated to the protection of the sacred site Panhe and served on the Board of the Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum & Acjachemen Cultural Center for nearly a decade. She received her B.A. from Brown University and her J.D. with a concentration in Critical Race Studies and focus on federal Indian law from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. She currently lives and works in unceded Tongva homelands now known as Los Angeles, California and teaches Indigenous Environmental Law, Indigenous Land Use Planning and Indigenous Environmental Justice courses at Pitzer College.

Tina Nagata

Tina Ngata (Ngāti Porou) is a mother of two from the East Coast of Te Ika a Maui, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the author of Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions, which analyses the application of the Doctrine of Discovery by James Cook, and critiques the New Zealand government Cook anniversary celebrations. Her work involves advocacy for environmental, Indigenous and human rights. This includes local, national and international initiatives that highlight the role of settler colonialism in issues such as climate change and waste pollution, and promote Indigenous conservation as best practice for a globally sustainable future.

Sarah Nahar

Sarah Nahar neé Thompson (she/her) is from Elkhart, Indiana (Potowatomi Traditional land) and a first year PhD student in the Religion department at Syracuse University. Her research focus is “How do beliefs about the Earth and the End Times influence toileting practices of religious people?” She is matriculating concurrently at neighboring SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Department of Environmental Studies. She is also a nonviolent action trainer and interspiritual theologian. Previously, Sarah was a 2019 Rotary Peace Fellow and worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a member of the Carnival de Resistance and has been the Executive Director of Christian Peacemaker Teams. She attended Spelman College, majoring in Comparative Women’s Studies and International Studies, minoring in Spanish. She has an MDiv from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in her hometown. Her hobbies include capoeira and home improvement projects.

Steven T. Newcomb

Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) co-founded the Indigenous Law Institute in 1992 with Birgil Kill Straight (1940-2019), who was a traditional headman and ceremonial leader of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Newcomb is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Doctrine of Discovery as made evident by his law review articles and his book Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Fulcrum, 2008). He is the co-producer of the documentary movie The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code, directed by Sheldon Wolfchild (Dakota), which is based on Pagans in the Promised Land. His website is originalfreenations.com and he can be contacted at stv4newcomb[at]yahoo[period]com. The documentary can be ordered at 38Plus2Productions.com.

Lisa Poirier

Lisa Poirier is a scholar of Native American religions in particular and religion and colonialism in general. She is originally from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on Nipmuc and Pennacook traditional lands, but she now teaches at DePaul University and lives in Chicago, on the traditional lands of the Council of the Three Fires– Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations.

In her book, Religion, Gender, and Kinship in Colonial New France (Syracuse University Press, 2016), she investigated the ways in which Native men and women of the Wendat Confederacy and French explorers, missionaries and settlers employed kinship-building strategies as they struggled to create new religious orientations that would enable them to survive the life-and-death challenges of early seventeenth-century New France. Her academic interests do go beyond the colonial period; for instance, in her most recent article published in the journal Religion and Popular Culture, she explored the ways in which the twentieth-century Kaw/Mvskoki jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper was influenced by the sacred music of the Native American Church. Her most current research investigates the religious and economic innovations of Native women in Great Lakes environments in the eighteenth century.

Eve Reyes-Aguirre

Eve Reyes-Aguirre, an Izkaloteka Azteca Indigenous woman, has been a community organizer at Tonatierra, An Embassy for Indigenous Peoples, for more than 22 years. In that time, Eve has been at the forefront in advocating for human rights, women’s rights, Indigenous Peoples rights and environmental rights on the local, national, and international level. Eve has worked tirelessly to bring awareness to the political, social, economic and environmental challenges affecting Indigenous Peoples globally. She also organizes at the grassroots level regionally and locally to strengthen traditional identity, equality and well-being of Indigenous Women, Indigenous Peoples, and the protection of water and the environment.  Eve has represented her community annually at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Eve has also served the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus as Co-chair and/or Rapporteur since 2009. In April of 2013, Eve was a co-organizer of the 1st International Conference on Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery held in Phoenix Arizona, with over 430 indigenous participants from all over the globe.

Eglute Trinkauskaite

Eglute Trinkauskaite is a full time faculty in Humanistic Studies department at Maryland Institute College of Art.  

She holds her PhD, MPhil, and MA in Religion from Syracuse University and her BA in Religion from Hunter College, City University of New York. Her teaching and research interests focus on indigenous and ethnic traditions, the natural environment, and globalization. Her latest writing explores complex layers of culture and religion in post-Soviet Lithuania. Her current book project, The Swarming Dead, focuses on the continued vitality of indigenous religion and its imprint on modern Lithuania and its diaspora. Eglute has taught at Syracuse University, Hamilton College, and Nazareth College of Rochester, New York. She is an active member of American Academy of Religion and Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.

Rob Ruehl

coming soon

Tink Tinker

TINK TINKER, a citizen of the Osage Nation (wazhazhe), is the Clifford Baldridge Emeritus Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology. During his 33 years at Iliff, Dr. Tinker brought a distinctly Indian perspective to a predominantly White, euro-christian school and continues to do so in lectures across the continent. As an Indian academic Tinker is committed to a scholarly endeavor that takes seriously both the liberation of Indian peoples from their historic oppression as colonized communities and the liberation of White Americans, the historic colonizers and oppressors of Indian peoples, whose own history has been largely suppressed. For nearly three decades he volunteered both administratively and as a traditional spiritual leader at Four Winds American Indian Council in Denver (an urban Indian organization) and worked closely with the American Indian Movement of Colorado. His publications include: American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty (Orbis, 2008); Spirit and Resistance: American Indian Liberation and Political Theology (Fortress, 2004); and Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Genocide (Fortress Press, 1993). He has published some seven dozen journal articles and chapters for edited volumes.

Caucus Facilitators

Gail Bundy

Gail Bundy, Board Member, Indigenous Values Initiative. My initial involvement with the Doctrine of Discovery was in Colorado working with the Transform Columbus Day Alliance and Red Earth Women’s Alliance to repeal the Columbus Day holiday.  I have worked on the Neighbors of Onondaga Nation Historic Marker Project and participated in the Doctrine of Discovery discussion group. I am currently on the board of the Indigenous Values Initiative and work on DOD issues related to education, environment, and community problem-solving.

Adam DJ Brett

Adam DJ Brett (he/him/his), Ph.D. Candidate, Syracuse University Department of Religion. I am working on a dissertation that examines Protestant Christian fundamentalism’s lasting impact in North America especially in relationship to culture and politics. While US Protestants did not author the Doctrine of Discovery, they are certainly some of the doctrines primary benefactors. Moreover, US Protestants helped to hone and refine the Doctrine of Discovery into the weapon it is today, as witnessed in American Exceptionalism, the virulent return of Christian ethno-nationalism, and the revival of Dominionist Theology. I am also involved in the Alliance of Baptists, a progressive Protestant Christian denomination engaged in social justice work. Living on land stolen from the Onondaga Nation and Haudenosaunee Confederacy and learning from the Indigenous Values Initiative and American Indian Law Alliance, I have learned the importance and urgency of working together to overturn the Doctrine of Discovery. I look forward to learning some of the next steps I can take, and how I can help the various communities I am a part of embrace a deeper sense of justice.

Michael E. Chaness

Dr. Michael E. Chaness – I am currently a visiting assistant professor at SUNY-Oswego where I teach courses in Anthropology and Native American Studies. Previous to that appointment I earned my Ph.D. in the department of religion at Syracuse University under the tutelage of Dr. Philip Arnold. It was while living in Syracuse that I began to collaborate with onkwehonwe peoples. Throughout my graduate studies I worked simultaneously at the Onondaga Nation School and the relationships I cultivated at ONS lead directly to many years of (ongoing) informal fieldwork. My scholarship explores the intersections between Jewish American and Native American identity creation through the prisms of blood and land, philosophy and theology, gender and genocide, religion and ritual. I see this conference as an opportunity to focus attention on the insidiousness of the doctrine of Christian discovery so that we may uproot, expose, and begin to dismantle the legacies of white supremacy that have become entrenched throughout America’s religious, legal, and political institutions. May this process, as our Haudenosaunee friends say, bring our minds together as one.

Hilary-Anne Coppola

Hil is community organizer for the law office of Joe Heath, general counsel to the Onondaga Nation. Through this position, I work on behalf of the interests of the Onondaga and Cayuga Nations. I studied Natural History/Interpretation and Environmental Writing at SUNY-ESF and afterwards was an educator for eight years. For two of these years I worked in Vermont as a NAI-certified interpretive naturalist in a state forest and a science educator at the Fairbanks Natural History Museum. I became extremely intimate with the land and learned about the history and current reality of the Abenaki people. These experiences led me to engage more passionately as an accomplice with Indigenous peoples, whatever land I am living in.

My current primary focuses are protecting Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Creek, and land rightfully under the stewardship of the Onondaga; collaborating on concerns of Onondaga, Cayuga, Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, and other Haudenosaunee citizens and leaders; supporting and/or contributing to the work of American Indian Law Alliance, Indigenous Values Initiative, ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Skä•noñh Great Law of Peace Center, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, Friends of Onondaga Lake Bald Eagles, Nuclear Free World Committee of Syracuse Peace Council, and Peace Newsletter. Other primary goals I am involved in include global indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, oil and plastic abolition, racial justice, stewardship, and TEK education.

Tehosterihens Wes Deer

Hello my name is Tehosterihens Deer and I am a Mohawk from Kahnawake. I am 21 years old , bear clan and currently attending Syracuse University taking Communications and Rhetorical Studies with a plan double minor in Public Communications and Native American Studies. I am very vocal on Indigenous topics and issues. As an Indigenous man, I believe it is essential to give my experience on certain issues, including the doctrine of discovery. I use my public speaking and communications/media skills to educate others in presentations on the history of the Iroquois.  I am very delighted to be apart of this webinar and look forward to discussing these issues further.

Grace Fritzke

Grace Fritzke is a Master’s student in Religion at Syracuse University. Her interests include public memory, especially monuments to colonialism. She is a volunteer docent at Ska-nonh: Great Law of Peace Center where she enjoys giving tours, especially to kids ranging from fourth grade through high school. Before coming to Syracuse, Grace worked as a Research Associate for Tamastslikt Cultural Institute (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) and Whitman College. She studied the transmission of disease during the mid-1800s, especially measles. The project’s results complicated existing narratives, which blamed a group of Walla Walla and Cayuse people for the largest of the outbreaks. Grace turned this information into an exhibit titled, Caution! Broken Past, continuing an interest in historical centers and the variety of ways information about the past can be shared. She has also worked or volunteered for the Whitman Mission National Historic Site and the Fort Walla Walla Museum. She looks forward to the conversations of this conference!

Blake Garland-Tirado

Abel Gomez

Alexander Gonzalez

Alexander V. Gonzalez, Ph.D., received his doctorate in 2010 from the Syracuse University Department of Religion. His dissertation involved working with Lukumi practitioners and employed a multi-disciplinary approach to examine the role of el Diloggun, or cowry shell reading in Lukumi. a practice popularly and erroneously referred to as Santeria. He has written articles on Lukumi and other Afro-Caribbean religions and continues to work with Lukumi practitioners on matters of social justice. When he is not gardening or planting trees at his South Florida home, he teaches Philosophy and Religion courses at Miami-Dade College in Hialeah.

Mary Keller

Mary L. Keller works at the intersection of feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and Indigenous studies theory in order to study the relationship of religious lives to struggles for meaning and power. She teaches Introduction to World Religions, African Spirits in the New World, African American Religious Culture, and summer fieldwork on Indigenous landscapes In Wyoming. Keller emphasizes the geographical, historical and social context in which religious lives are embedded and then focuses on questions of personhood within religious traditions. Current research emphasizes Indigenous theorizations of matter and spirit as that delivers teachings for right action in the time of climate crisis, and recent developments in theory and method in the study of spirit possession.

Dana Lloyd

Kenneth H. Lokensgard

Dr. Kenneth H. Lokensgard is the Assistant Director for the Center for Native American Research & Collaboration, in the Office of Native American Programs, at Washington State University. Ken’s research has focused upon the sometimes conflicting ontologies and epistemologies of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples. Specifically, he has worked with Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) elders and ceremonialists, in the US and Canada, to highlight the personhood of Blackfoot ceremonial items and the need for their repatriation. He is also interested in traditional protocols of reciprocity practiced by Native Americans and how they inform Indigenous research methodologies. Dr. Lokensgard is committed to promoting the importance of these protocols and methodologies, as means of facilitating collaborative work between Native and Non-Native communities. To this end, he is active in developing Institutional Review Board processes and guidelines that ensure collaboration and recognition of Tribal sovereignty. He is also committed to promoting Native scholarship and scholars within the academy and elsewhere.

Sarah Elizabeth Nahar

Sarah Nahar neé Thompson (she/her) is from Elkhart, Indiana (Potowatomi Traditional land) and a first year PhD student in the Religion department at Syracuse University. Her research focus is “How do beliefs about the Earth and the End Times influence toileting practices of religious people?” She is matriculating concurrently at neighboring SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Department of Environmental Studies. She is also a nonviolent action trainer and interspiritual theologian. Previously, Sarah was a 2019 Rotary Peace Fellow and worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a member of the Carnival de Resistance and has been the Executive Director of Christian Peacemaker Teams. She attended Spelman College, majoring in Comparative Women’s Studies and International Studies, minoring in Spanish. She has an MDiv from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in her hometown. Her hobbies include capoeira and home improvement projects.

Robert Michael Ruehl

Robert Michael Ruehl is a visiting assistant professor of philosophy; he has a PhD from Syracuse University with a research emphasis on philosophy of religion, the Doctrine of Discovery, and ethical social transformation for sustained peace. His courses range from introductions to philosophy and ethics to Indigenous philosophies and business ethics. His work appears in The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Philosophy Now! The aim of his work in the coming years is to develop a philosophy of peace through the lens of conflict transformation, circle processes, Indigenous wisdom, and sustained dialogue to support the ethical cultivation of sustained peace for generations to come.

Terry Reeder

Hello, I am Terry Reeder PhD. I am an anti-racist feminist who has taught Religious Studies and Ethics at multiple colleges including Syracuse University, Nazareth College, St. John Fisher, the College of St. Rose and LeMoyne College. I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio. As a Catholic high school Religion teacher I became increasingly unable to live with the social justice violations that I was complicit with as a Catholic educator. This includes the Doctrine of Discovery. The year that I became a grandmother I began a doctoral program in Religion at Syracuse University. At SU I  studied the ethics of Christianity and ways to deconstruct and dismantle religious colonialism and sexism in order to  build a more just world. For me the most important way to grow in justice  is to learn from Indigenous teachers. I try to balance my scholarship with activism, and to continually decolonize myself, my pedagogy, and my religion.  It is an honor to be at this conference learning from and with these esteemed teachers and other participants.

Dillon Sampson

Dillon Sampson is a Ph.D. Student in Religion at Syracuse University. Dillon completed his M.A. at the University of Colorado with research focused upon the simulation and consumption of indigenous images by settlers in a consumerist market.  His research interests have moved recently, however, becoming historically focused upon Medieval and Early Modern Europe.  In particular, he is interested the articulations of the “other” in Christendom, including the internal other of the “heretic” and the external other of the indigenous subject, both of which were formative and essential to the development of an identity of a Christian self, and as well as being the sites of a material expression of Christian domination and violence. The Doctrine of Discovery is itself an archetypal example by which this process has and continues to unfold.
&nbps;

Eglute Trinkauskaite

➡︎ Return to Mother Earth’s Pandemic Home page

“Peace can only be attained when human beings live in proper relationship to the natural world” ~Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Sid Hill

“The pandemic gives us all an opportunity to be at home and reflect on what we have done and where we are going. It is an opportunity for Mother Earth to breath, rest and recover.” ~Jake Haiwhagai’i Edwards, Onondaga Nation citizen

Event Details

• Title: Mother Earth’s Pandemic: The Doctrine of Discovery
• Dates: Thursday August 6, 13, and 20, 2020
• Times: 6-9 PM EST each Thursday, followed by caucuses/small group discussions.
• Location: Online
• Sponsors: Indigenous Values Initiative, American Indian Law Alliance, and ‘CUSE GRANT
• View Flyer
• View bios
• Register

The “Doctrine of Discovery,” better described as the “Doctrine of Christian Discovery and World Domination,” established the worldview that not only brought devastation to the natural world, but also impaired the ability for human beings to live in proper relationship with the Earth. 15^th century Papal Bulls, issued by the Vatican, justified the assault upon Indigenous Peoples as an artificial justification to take possession of their bodies, lands and resources in order to finance their New World Order. This worldview advanced the Age of Discovery as an extension of the Crusades, and was the conceptual framework behind the Protestant Reformation, the establishment of Nation States around the world, and later secularized to define colonialism, white supremacy and global capitalism.

Essentially, what defines Indigenous Peoples is their relationship with a living landscape that includes the soil, water, air, and all other non-human being co-inhabitants.  This orientation to land is distinctly opposed to the European concept of owning land and the process of colonization.  Indigenous scholars have discussed these two opposing orientations as being one of habitation and the other, of occupation. Although the violent seizure of Indigenous lands was initiated with “discovery,” corporations today, continue exploiting Indigenous Peoples and their land all over the world. The Doctrine of Discovery is the root of the problem, and the reason that it is discussed at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

This current pandemic and the escalating climate chaos clarify to everyone that there are consequences to the devastation humans have perpetrated upon the environment.  As Oren Lyons has pointed out, Natural Law will reestablish balance, and these climate changes will not destroy the Earth, but will most likely destroy the human beings who abuse her. The earth will rebound in its own time. If we are to survive as a species, we must reorient to an Indigenous worldview acknowledging that we are first and foremost, co-inhabitants with this Earth—not in charge of it. These Indigenous values, along with the acceptance of traditional ecological knowledge, will transform future technological innovations possibly resulting in a viable future for our species.  Religious concepts of imperial thinking urgently need to be re-imagined; messages from Indigenous Peoples need to be heeded; and environmental justice needs to be restored.  Racist ideologies of conquest and domination are directly connected with domination of the Earth and other non-human beings.

This conference will connect the dots between our current pandemic, environmental devastation, the Doctrine of Discovery, and a way forward. Too often these are thought of as unrelated concepts, rather than being the core impediment in working towards social justice in an ecologically balanced Earth.  Our speakers have been working in these areas for many decades.  Participants will hear the wisdom from the traditions of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), as well as other Indigenous Peoples. Through virtual discussion groups, you will be able to interact on how best to implement these values of respect, thanksgiving, and peace into your lives.

Please join us in August 2020 for conversations about the Doctrine of Discovery, so we can begin the process of decolonization back to understanding our proper relationship to the natural world and peace.

Schedule

Thursday 6 August, 6-9 PM (EST)

• 6:00-6:10 Opening, Tadodaho Sid Hill
• 6:15-7:00 Orienting the conference panel:
  • Phil Arnold, Sandy Bigtree, Betty Lyons, Jake Edwards

• 7:00-8 PM Keynote: “God, Glory, Gold” by Oren Lyons

• 8:00-9:00PM: Thematic Discussion groups/Caucuses

Thursday 13 August, 6-9 PM (EST)

• 6:00-7:00 PM Legal dimensions of the Doctrine of Discovery
  • Joe Heath, Dana Lloyd, Steve Newcomb, Makayla Loeb
• 7:00-8:00 PM Mother Earth’s Pandemic in other contexts
  • Eglute Trinkauskaite, Rob Ruehl, Sarah Nahar, Angela Mooney D’Arcy, Abel Gomez
•  8:00-9:00PM: Thematic Discussion groups/Caucuses

Thursday 20 August, 6-9 PM (EST)

• 6:00-7:00 International work and the Doctrine of Discovery
  • Betty Lyons, Evie Reyes-Aguirre, Tupac Enrique Acosta, Tina Ngata
• 7:00-8:00 Considerations for an Indigenous Future (panel-summation)
  • Beverly Jacobs, Tink Tinker, Jake Edwards.
  • Closing by Jake Edwards
• 8:00-9:00 PM Thematic Discussion groups/Caucuses

Thematic Discussion Groups (caucuses)

After each panel there will be facilitated thematic discussion groups (caucus) for intentional thematic dialogue and conversations around the panels and possible next steps. Each caucus will have a facilitator and be capped at 25 members as a way of allowing for intentional conversations. Caucuses will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. We will try and accommodate your choices as best we are able but no guarantees. The Indigenous Peoples solidarity caucus is reserved as a space for Indigenous Nations and Peoples to talk. The regional action caucus groups we will be crafted to the best of our ability based on a critical mass of folks from a particular location.

The Doctrine of Discovery email list will be used to send follow up resources. You are encouraged to join the list.

Conference Conclusion

The conference has now concluded and registration is closed. You can watch the conference presentations on our YouTube channel. You can join the conversation by contacting us.

Next Steps

There are some of you who would like to host study or discussion groups of your own. Please contact us at info@indigenousvalues.org. We will share your name, location and contact information on this list so people can contact you.

We also have a resource page on our website of books and articles taken from the talks that can be used for the same purpose:

• ➡︎ Resources
• ➡︎ Download the Study Guide as a PDF

Videos

Session I

• Thanksgiving Address and Friendship song by Tadodaho Sid Hill, Sr., Betty Lyons, and Sid Hill, Jr.
• God, Glory, Gold by Faithkeeper Oren Lyons
• Land Acknowledgement read by Blake Garland-Tirado
• Introduction to Mother Earth’s Pandemic: The Doctrine of Discovery
• The Doctrine of Discovery’s Impact Today by Betty Lyons
• NYA•WEÑHA SKÄ•NOÑH: Thank you for being well by Jake Edwards
• Introduction to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy by Jake Edwards

Keynote

• God, Glory, Gold by Faithkeeper Oren Lyons
• The Spiritual Traditions of the New World by Oren Lyons

Session II

• Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination, by Joe Heath
  • Resource: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly In Mcgirt V. Oklahoma
• Do rivers have rights? by Dana Lloyd
• The Doctrine of Domination by Steven Newcomb
• Towards Justice with Nature and Her Peoples, by Makayla Loeb
• The Doctrine of Discovery in the Lithuanian Context by Eglutė Trinkauskaitė
• Social Change and Indigenous History and Wisdom by Rob Ruehl
• Glimpses into Black and POC Perspectives by Sarah Nahar
  • Expanded Glimpses into Black and other POC Perspectives on the Doctrine of Discovery by Sarah Nahar
• Protecting Indigenous Relationships to Place during the Pandemic, Angela Mooney D’Arcy as aired.
  • Expanded Talk on Protecting Indigenous Relationships to Place During the Pandemic by Angela Mooney D’Arcy
• ’Discovery,’ Disease, and Survival in Native California, by Abel Gomez

Session III

• Situating Mother Earth’s Pandemic The Doctrine of Discovery
• Panel on International work and the Doctrine of Discovery
• Reflections on the Doctrine of Discovery by Philip P. Arnold and Sandy Bigtree
• Why the Iroquois Nationals should be in the Olympics by Betty Lyons
• Reflections on the Doctrine of Discovery by Tink Tinker
• Two Row Wampum and Canandaigua Treaties explained by Jake Edwards
• The Closing by Jake Edwards

Bonus Content

• The McGirt Decision and Federal Indian Law by Joe Heath
• McGirt v Oklahoma: Plenary Power & the Doctrine of Christian Discovery by Steve Newcomb & Joe Heath
• Expanded analysis of Johnson v. McIntosh by Steven Newcomb
• The Spiritual Traditions of the New World by Oren Lyons
• ➡︎ Resources
• ➡︎ Download the Study Guide as a PDF

Thank You

We need to thank all of people for making the Mother Earth’s Pandemic conference a success. Without them we could not have pulled it off.

• First the IVI-AILA board: Phil Arnold, Sandy Bigtree, Elsye Crouse, Jake Edwards, Gail Bundy, and Betty Lyons.
• Adam DJ Brett and Hil Coppola were the only reason it came off so well
• Our presenters: Tupac Enrique Acosta, Joe Heath, Tadodaho Sid Hill, Abel Gomez, Beverly Jacobs, Dana Lloyd, Makayla Loeb, Betty Lyons, Oren Lyons, Sarah Nahar, Steve Newcomb, Tina Ngata, Angela Mooney D’Arcy, Evie Reyes-Aguirre, Tink Tinker, and Eglute Trinkauskaite. They all pushed us to understand the deeper issues related to the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
• Our moderators: Phil Arnold, Sandy Bigtree, Gail Bundy, Michael Chaness, Hil Coppola, Jonathan Daoud-Nahar, Tehosterihens Deer, Grace Fritzke, Blake Garland-Tirado, Abel Gomez, Alex Gonzalez, Mary Keller, Zach Krahmer, Dana Lloyd, Ken Lokensgard, Betty Lyons, Sarah Nahar, Lisa Poirier, Terry Reeder, Rob Ruehl, Dillon Sampson, Eglute Trinkauskaite and Duygu Yeni-Cenebasi.
• Technical support: Adam, Jonathan, Zach, Michael and Rob.

Finally, the CUSE Grant from Syracuse University and the Department of Religion, Indigenous Values Initiative and the American Indian Law Alliance sponsored this conference.

Give

Please help support Indigenous Values Initiative in their efforts to support and create educational content like this conference.

Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center, 6680 Onondaga Lake Parkway, Liverpool, New York 13088.

• Learn More about Taking on the Doctrine of Discovery: What are our Next Steps?
• Book Your Hotel

My original name is Gaen hia uh, my colonized name is Betty Lyons and I am a proud citizen of the Onondaga Nation and President of the American Indian Law Alliance.

I want to begin by acknowledging the original peoples of these territories, the Lenape Peoples. My own people, the Haudenosaunee also had influence on these territories–and we still do today.

I want to thank all the members of the NYC Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers. I want to acknowledge my Mohawk sister Dr. Audra Simpson, as well as Dr. John Tchen, Executive Director of NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute, and Associate Professor at NYU, who has hosted many Indigenous events at the A/P/A Institute.

With my short time, I would like to shine some light on the best kept secret in American history–the ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ And I would like to talk about how the monuments to Christopher Columbus, and the celebration of Christopher Columbus keeps this secret hidden.

The U.S. system of land title is rooted in centuries old documents from the Vatican–the Catholic Church, known as papal bulls. Collectively, they are known as the ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ The first papal bull (an edict from the Pope similar to a Presidential Order) of the Doctrine is titled “Terra Nullius,” (1095 AD) and states that any land in which Christians do not live is declared “empty” and open to conquest. These papal bulls gave Europeans the justification to “invade, conquer, fight, subjugate” Indigenous Peoples around the world. While these documents were written centuries ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has cited the Doctrine of Discovery to deny land rights to the Oneida Nation as recently as 2005 AD. This is not history. Claims that Columbus was simply a man from the past, out of step with today’s values ignoring the fact that this is ongoing. This is not in the past.

Continuing to celebrate Columbus, and leaving monuments of him up is the continued act of erasure to ensure that “Americans” will never be educated on the reality of our harsh shared history. The Papal Bulls set forth a mindset and perception that Indigenous Peoples such as myself were not human therefore not equal to all other peoples.
The statues depicting Columbus ignore his enslavement and massacre of Indigenous Peoples, and the promotion of sex slavery of children, as young as 9 years old. These are NOT merely a ‘difference of opinion,’ these are historical facts and they are taken directly from Columbus’ own diary entries and journals. This is not someone worthy of a monument or of celebration.

Columbus began the imposition of the Doctrine of Discovery, which supposedly granted European settlers sovereignty over non-Christian lands “discovered” by their explorers. That continues to provide the legal underpinning of the denial of land rights to our Indigenous Peoples. Columbus set off the genocide of our peoples. Columbus also opened the way for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

It is easier for ” Americans” to continue the belief that the “Americas,” known to us as Turtle Island, was uninhabited then to face the realities of genocide, attacks on the environment, the stealing of our lands and the enslavement of our peoples and those brought here to be enslaved.

We are not asking for reconciliation as it is not possible to reconcile all that has been done but you can make a conscientious choice to do the right thing as these unspeakable horrors and many more are not deserving of celebration. We are asking the monuments of Columbus be moved to a museum, where they can be placed in accurate historical context for future generations to learn from. These monuments to hate must come down now!

AILA Testimony to the NYC Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers.  Testimony of Gaen hia uh, Betty Lyons (Onondaga Nation, Snipe Clan), speaking as President of the American Indian Law Alliance ( http://www.aila.ngo/ ).  Presented at the Bronx hearing on Monday, November 27, 2017 at Bronx Borough Hall

The final event of the Deyhontsigwa’ehs-The Creator’s Game, Lacrosse Weekend, hashtag #laxweekend17, will be a three way scrimmage between the Syracuse University Men’s Lacrosse Team, The Iroquois Nationals, and Team israel Lacrosse. These scrimmages are sure to delight fans.

Tickets can be purchased soon for $10 with parking available for $5.

Schedule

• Iroquois vs. Israel (11:00)
• Israel vs. Syracuse (12:30)
• Syracuse vs. Iroquois (3:00)

Download the Carrier Dome Scrimmage Flyer

For more about all the exciting things happening during the Lacrosse Weekend like the Lacrosse All-Stars North American Invitational (LASNAI) Box Lacrosse tournament see our page on the Lacrosse Weekend. The event hashtag is: #laxweekend17 .

Select Highlights of Deyhontsigwa’ehs

• LASNAI Box Tournament at Tsha’ Thoñ’nhes (The Onondaga Nation Field House). Advance 3 Day passes are $25.00. Day of passes will be available at the door each day for $15, and Kids (10 & under) get in for only $5.
• The Wooden Stick Festival will be happening concurrently with LASNAI out at Tsha’ Thoñ’nhes and will be free
• Thompson Brothers Youth Lacrosse Camp
• Stay tuned for more

Celebrating its 40th year in 1985 the United Nations established the GLOBAL FORUM OF SPIRITUAL AND PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ON HUMAN SURVIVAL. This forum was charged to promote dialog between religious and political leaders in order to turn the tide of the growing environmental crisis. Forum conversations and deliberations were dedicated to the survival of the planet and future generations. This international group of religious and political leaders included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Senator Al Gore and President Mikhail Gorbachev, to name a few. From 1985 to 1991 they met in New York, Moscow, Oxford and Tokyo. Representing Native America was Oren Lyons, Joaguisho, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, which is the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee and just a few miles south of Syracuse New York. Over the last 40 years Oren has been active in the UN to secure rights for Indigenous People and to advocate for environmental healing. Oren has said of the Global Forum’s final meeting in Tokyo that the group was called upon by the Executive Coordinator, Akio Matsumura, to summarize their work. They agreed that all of their work could be distilled into four words: VALUE CHANGE FOR SURVIVAL.

Now, nearly 20 years later, these words seem more urgent than ever. As a Historian of Religion, working with the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) who are erroneously referred to as the “Iroquois” or “Six Nations,” these words have focused my work around the development of collaborative inter-cultural events. The Roots of Peacemaking: Indigenous Values, Global Crisis, is the most important of these ongoing collaborations. Before I talk about it in detail, however I want to make some observations about the phrase VALUE CHANGE FOR SURVIVAL.

There is a lot of talk nowadays about ‘retooling’ our economy as ‘green.’ I am completely in favor of that effort. But some leaders talk as if becoming ‘green’ is just a technological shift, as if it is exclusively an economic, political or technological shift of the machinery. To put this transformation in terms of a ‘value change’ however interjects that what is needed is a fundamental shift in cultural priorities. If we can characterize where we must go to survive as ‘green,’ then the urgent question is what has characterized the values that got us into this current crisis? What were the cultural and religious ideas that we now see as opposite to the new ‘green’ values that we urgently need to embrace? I’ll call them ‘raider’ values. The reason why it’s important to distinguish these different values right now because there is a growing tendency for a variety of institutions to utilize the rhetoric of ‘going green’ while clinging to a ‘raider’ mentality. I’m sure you all have examples in mind.

The negative ‘raider’ values that need to be expunged for the sake of survival have been most evident with respect to the modern world’s treatment of Indigenous peoples. ‘Raider’ values don’t just refer to how consumer societies, such as the USA, have treated the natural world, but it also refers to our colonial past and the mistreatment of Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples around the world. The illegal theft of land from Native people has been justified by a variety of religious doctrines, missionizing activities, and educational practices that assumed that the only way Native Americans could have a future was to assimilate them. How we have treated Native Americans here in the USA, and Indigenous peoples around the world, is directly proportional to the degree to which modernity has embraced the ‘raider’ values of its own destruction. How Indigenous peoples are treated from now on reflects how well we have incorporated a new set of ‘green’ values. Our current world has to become more ‘indigenized’ in its values. Up to this current moment we have done everything we can to diminish the value of Indigenous peoples and their worldviews. Now our survival depends upon our ability to embrace indigenous values as our own.

Rhetoric of hatred for the ‘savage’ or ‘uncivilized’ Indian is only part of the story. As Charles H. Long and many others have pointed out, American history if full of moments where the survival of immigrant people was completely dependent on Native Americans. This is evident in upstate New York too. The Roots of Peacemaking event celebrates the indigenous roots of Western Democracy. At least 1000 years ago the Longhouse system of the Haudenosaunee, called the Great Law of Peace, was established by three men: the Peacemaker, Hiawentha, and the Tadadaho. In their efforts they managed to unified the various nations of the Haudenosaunee (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca) around a decision making process based on a matrilineal clan system. The Great Law of Peace was established at Onondaga Lake, which is right in the heart of Syracuse New York.

During the 18th century, Haundenosaunee chiefs sat in council with many who would become the Founding Fathers of the US. There seems little doubt that these meetings helped inspire the development of American Democracy. Indeed, in 1987 the US congress officially recognized the Haudenosaunee influence on the US system. But while many aspects of the Longhouse system were adopted, several other aspects of the Longhouse were not. For example, the role of women and the emphasis on ceremonially connecting the human community to Creation did not become part of the American democratic system. This last point is particularly key to the Longhouse practice. Indeed, The Great Law of Peace emphasizes that human beings only become fully functional when they can acknowledge their total dependence on the natural world. When a proper balance is achieved between human beings and all other beings in the world, then ‘raider’ values can be overcome and peace prevails.

Over the last 4 years we have developed a collaborative project between Syracuse University and the leadership of the Onondaga Nation called “Roots of Peacemaking: Indigenous Values, Global Crisis.” The event coincides with the UN international Day of Peace on 21 September. The event takes place on the shores of Onondaga Lake, which, as noted, is the birthplace of the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee and the Indigenous birthplace of the US Democracy. Today, however, Onondaga Lake is best known as the most chemically polluted lake in the country and the 2nd most polluted in the world after Chernobyl. No stronger metaphor could reflect our current state of affairs.

It is also an opportunity for intercultural exchanges between the Haudenosaunee and the rest of the world around issues of urgent mutual concern. The obvious immediate concern is the state of the lake, which Jane Goodall (our guest speaker in 2006) described as ‘sacred but filthy.’ But larger issues are involved in these gatherings too. We have had Buddhist nuns come to support the Onondaga ‘land-rights’ action, which has served as a catalyst for uniting people? a local group Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON)? Taiko drummers from Japan? Indigenous leaders from Alaska and other Haudenosaunee territories? UN representatives from the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In September 2009 Susan Harjo will be joining us at the lake to talk about the importance of spreading Indigenous values. Come and join us!