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7. Can't keep those California Indians down.
8. Hello everyone, you're listening to American Indian Airwaves.
9. For Marcus Lopez, I'm your host for the hour, Larry Smith.
10. On today's program, a special archival broadcast of the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery.
11. We'll hear from three community members, Professor Robert J. Miller, Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University,
12. as well as Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, who's a Nevada-based attorney and has worked tirelessly with the Western Shoshone Defense Project
13. in defending the Western Shoshone Nation's traditional homelands,
14. and author Stephen Newcomb, who is the author of Pagans in the Promised Land, Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery.
15. You're listening to American Indian Airwaves.
16. You can hear when the moon shines bright
17. The lone fool in the black of night
18. You can hear, you can hear
19. The whisper in the valley
20. And you know when Kama Kani blows
21. To the Bahu drum
22. It's the warriors who are marching
23. Down the mountain
24. Because history ain't no mystery to me
25. Today on American Indian Airwaves, the Christian of Doctrine Discovery,
26. an exclusive conference from an event held at the Arizona State Representative Floor
27. within the traditional territories of the Tonotum Nation,
28. and the event was organized by Tonotira and the Alliance Without Border organization.
29. We broadcast this educational, informative, and timely archival program on the impact of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery just prior to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
30. The 20th session is being held from April 19th to April 30th of this year, and this year's theme is Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, the Role of Indigenous Peoples in Implementing Sustainable Development Goal 16.
31. We broadcast today's program because the Christian of Doctrine Discovery lays the foundation for the dispossession of indigenous peoples' lands throughout the Western Hemisphere and the continent of Africa.
32. Today we'll hear from Professor Robert J. Miller, who is Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
33. He from the Eastern Shawnee Nation and is the interim chief justice for the Pascua Yaqui Nation Court of Appeals and sits as a judge for other indigenous nations He also the author of Native America Discovered and Conquered
34. Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny.
35. Following, we'll hear from Julie Cavanaugh-Bill,
36. who's a Nevada-based attorney and part of the Western Shoshone Defense Project,
37. who's worked tirelessly to protect the treaty lands of the Western Shoshone Nation
38. throughout the state of Nevada.
39. And closing will be Steve Newcomb, who's from the Shawnee-Lenape Nation,
40. and he is the author of Pagans in the Promised Land,
41. Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery.
42. You're listening to American Indian Airwaves,
43. and now Professor Robert J. Miller on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery.
44. And look at the Oregon country. Have you ever pondered what makes those boundaries?
45. Well, the boundaries are the drainage systems of those major rivers.
46. The Mississippi River, the drainage system comprises the territorial boundaries of the Louisiana Territory.
47. In 1804, after concluding the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson spent the summer of 1804 home at Monticello trying to figure out how large the drainage system of the Mississippi River was.
48. Why do you think he directed Meriwether Lewis to go to the very headwaters of the Missouri River and also directed him to go to the northernmost tributary of the Missouri?
49. Because he was trying to determine the boundaries of the Louisiana Territory.
50. Lieutenant Zebulon Pike that I just mentioned was sent along the Arkansas River
51. and he ends up in Colorado, modern day Colorado, and lo and behold he finds a mountain named Pike's Peak.
52. What irony, I just can't believe that.
53. But he also was sent to the headwaters of the Mississippi.
54. And President Jefferson also sent an expedition along the Red River, Dunbar and Scott.
55. So Jefferson was trying to determine the boundaries and he was using the international law of discovery to do that.
56. do that because I got a little bit ahead of myself so I get excited when I give this talk
57. but we'll see in a moment one of the elements of discovery is what explains why you use the
58. drainage systems of rivers the United States claimed the Oregon country because we found the
59. Columbia River first then Meriwether Lewis and William Clark crossed the continent and live at
60. the mouth of the Columbia for several months and Americans allegedly settle it first okay so first
61. discovery. You had to find it first. You had to somehow prove that to the world. Then Queen
62. Elizabeth I in 1587 developed this other element of the doctrine of discovery. Just finding it
63. wasn't good enough. You had to actually occupy these newly claimed lands within a reasonable
64. length of time. So that's what I call my element of actual occupancy. So you had to build a fort,
65. you had to build a settlement, you had to get some people there, and to show the world that
66. you had not only found it first, but you now were occupying it.
67. Next element.
68. What did Europeans acquire?
69. Well, Thomas Jefferson called the doctrine of discovery preemption.
70. The United States' very first Congress, folks, you've probably all heard of the Trade and
71. Intercourse Acts that the Congress enacted to limit tribal rights, Indian rights.
72. The first Congress used the word preemption in the very first Trade and Intercourse Act,
73. July 22, 1790.
74. So our founding fathers those people that helped draft the Constitution and started this country they understood this legal principle They knew the claims that the United States were making over native peoples And they knew it came from this ancient crazy idea that Europeans could show up and claim the rest of the world
75. Usually when I give the longer version of this speech, I pick someone from the front row and I ask them, where do you live?
76. I'm coming over today with the Bob Miller flag and the Bob Miller religious symbol, and I'm going to claim her house.
77. what's she gonna do what's the number for 9-1-1 here do you have a gun I'm
78. going to be insane aren't I if I think I can show up at her house and claim it
79. that's what Europeans did that's what this international law of discovery did
80. so when we're talking about the impact on indigenous peoples folks it was the
81. colonization it was the domination of European civilizations and religions of
82. of the rest of the world.
83. Oh, excuse me, one more.
84. So European title, that was this overall claim
85. that the Europeans now owned the land.
86. In Johnson v. McIntosh, the Supreme Court
87. says about 10 or 12 times that the United States owns
88. the ultimate title, the sole title, the exclusive title
89. of Indian lands, even though Indian peoples were still
90. living on the lands, using the lands,
91. and had been there for millennia.
92. The United States had the chutzpah, the hubris, whatever word you want to use to show up and claim it.
93. So the Indian title, what was the tribe left with?
94. Well, Johnson v. McIntosh tells us.
95. Tribes lost the full ownership of their lands, but they still had the right to occupy and use their lands.
96. So they could still live there, but they had lost the complete title and the United States still owns it.
97. Folks, you know that's still the law today, right?
98. tribes own what is called the beneficial title of trust lands.
99. 56 million acres of land in the lower 48 states are owned by tribes in trust status.
100. That means the United States is the legal owner of their lands.
101. The tribe is the beneficial owner.
102. As you all well know, any tribe that wants to sell, lease, or develop their land
103. has to ask the Secretary of Interior to approve that decision
104. because under the doctrine of discovery and Johnson v. McIntosh, the United States is deemed to be the legal owner.
105. Eleven million acres of land is owned by individual Indians in the lower 48 states in trust status due to the allotment era.
106. Those Indian peoples are the beneficial owner of those 11 million acres.
107. The United States is the legal owner because of the doctrine of discovery.
108. So this is not just some old interesting thing that happened in history.
109. We live this today as Indian people.
110. So what were tribes left with?
111. Well, we already saw what Johnson v. McIntosh said, is that tribes lost their full sovereignty.
112. They lost their independence and self-determination.
113. And so the doctrine of discovery says that tribes have only limited sovereignty, only limited commercial rights.
114. Wow, limited sovereignty.
115. Well, that's a course we know the Supreme Court of the United States says that every year in every case they decide.
116. Contiguity, I finally got to the element about how big of an area did Europeans claim when they stuck their flag and cross in the soil.
117. And we don't need to go back to the map because we already did that.
118. But look at how big of a claim France allegedly had to the entire drainage system of the Mississippi River
119. just because a Frenchman showed up at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1685 and
120. and did that charade look at the claim the United States made to own the entire Oregon country all of modern British Columbia all of my state Oregon Washington and part of Idaho etc etc because an American sailed up the mouth of the Columbia River in 1792
121. After reading Johnson v. McIntosh about a hundred times, these are the ten justifications, the ten elements for the doctrine of discovery.
122. Terranullius, Latin words that just mean an empty land.
123. Europeans acted as if lands that Indians were using were empty and they could claim the lands.
124. This principle was used most vigorously in Australia, where the British government didn't even pretend not to see the Aboriginal peoples, said they don't use land, they're not here, Australia's empty, we can claim it.
125. Australia rejected this principle, the Australian Supreme Court in the Mabo case in 1992.
126. too. That's a pretty dramatic statement, and it does show that the doctrine of discovery
127. can be resisted, can be fought, and changes can be made today. So that's why these efforts
128. and what's going on at the UN Permanent Forum are important.
129. Conquest. How does the Court define conquest? Because the Illinois and Piankashaw tribes
130. that were involved in the Johnson v. McIntosh decision had not fought a war with the US.
131. They had not been conquered in a war.
132. I think that Johnson v. McIntosh defines this word in two ways.
133. One, yes, if a European power or the U.S. fought a war with a tribe and won, then it
134. acquired the rights of warfare under European military law.
135. But I think Johnson v. McIntosh defines the word conquest in a second way, what we might
136. call a term of art.
137. The moment Europeans showed up with their flag and their cross, they acquired all these
138. same rights as if they had won a military battle.
139. So I think that's how Johnson v. McIntosh describes conquest.
140. Later American laws used this same idea.
141. Later American laws folks used all of these ideas against American Indians.
142. My last two elements, doctrine of discovery, civilization, and Christianity.
143. There is no question that European powers thought they were superior, thought they were
144. bringing great benefits to native peoples around the world, and the papal bulls that
145. Steve will talk to you about, of course, is all about this subject.
146. The quotations I could cite you folks throughout American history of our presidents, our secretaries
147. of state, people in Congress, local citizens, newspapers, they all bragged that Americans
148. were bringing civilization and Christianity to these heathen, pagan American Indian peoples.
149. So these ten principles are what I think make up the doctrine of discovery.
150. And so when I was writing this book in 2004 and 2005, I don't know when I started to think,
151. well, gee, what is manifest destiny and did it come directly from these same ideas?
152. And that's exactly the conclusion I came to.
153. And I use these 10 elements to analyze American history and the statements that were made by politicians and citizens and newspapers, etc., to understand what manifest destiny is and was and how it was justified.
154. So I've totally lost track of my time. I have another hour, right, Shannon?
155. Thank you. Sit back, relax. I've got another hour.
156. Let's get to the manifest destiny.
157. What is it? I said earlier that I bet every American knows the phrase, but I bet they don't really know what it means.
158. This definition is what historians say, not me. This isn't the Bob Miller definition of Manifest Destiny.
159. This is what most historians agree on. The United States has some special virtue as human beings and as institutions.
160. You've probably all heard the phrase that we think we're this shining city on a hill.
161. I think that was written by some New England minister in like 1640 or 60.
162. So in 1660, we thought we were something special.
163. And I think we still think that today, don't we?
164. I don't want to get myself in trouble.
165. But anyway, next point.
166. We have a mission to remake the world in our image.
167. Now, folks, I hope I'm not being taped because I don't want to say this on tape.
168. And you're listening to American Indian Airwaves. You're listening to Professor Robert J. Miller, professor of law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is speaking on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery. And now back to the program.
169. This is what we said about our Iraq War No. 2, didn't we?
170. We were going to bring democracy to the Middle East.
171. I'll just leave my comments right there.
172. And the third one, and we're doing it under God's direction.
173. Now, remember, this is the definition that U.S. historians give to manifest destiny.
174. This isn't mine.
175. So, you know, I looked at that and I thought, well, let's analyze the doctrine of discovery elements
176. with this definition of manifest destiny, and let's see what we find out.
177. So let me take you back.
178. The word manifest destiny was not used for the first time, to anyone's knowledge, until July of 1845.
179. A New York editorial writer wrote about Texas,
180. and that the United States owned Texas because it was our manifest destiny to own Texas,
181. and because God wanted us to own Texas.
182. Wow, that made me think of the doctrine of discovery just a little bit.
183. Six months later, he uses the phrase manifest destiny in regards where I live, the Oregon
184. country in his editorial.
185. He says it is our manifest destiny to own the Oregon country.
186. Just one paragraph of his editorial encompasses all 10 of these justifications.
187. A newsman, John L. O'Sullivan, in 1845, coins this phrase, manifest destiny, and says the United States already owns the Oregon country.
188. And he almost walks through these.
189. He says, we discovered it first.
190. Under international law, it's ours.
191. Our people are out there occupying it.
192. We deserve it.
193. We're bringing Christianity and civilization to the wild savages, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
194. He uses this.
195. You know the phrase manifest destiny was repeated within a week on the floor of the House of Representatives.
196. I believe it was on January the 7th, 1846, a congressman stated that phrase.
197. And this idea, manifest destiny, just swept the country.
198. Oh yes, we are God's elite. We deserve to own the whole continent.
199. Now what I want to tell you folks is this is nothing new.
200. This idea that Americans were special, yes, started in 1640.
201. This idea that Americans were going to sweep the continent started with George Washington,
202. started with Thomas Jefferson, all the presidents and secretaries of states long before John L. O. Sullivan writes the word manifest destiny.
203. In fact, let me tell you, you know our 13 original colonies?
204. Seven of them are called landed colonies because the charter that the kings of England gave them granted them the land in North America clear to the South Sea.
205. Well, that was their title of the Pacific Ocean at that time.
206. Now they didn know if the Atlantic to the Pacific was 10 miles or 3 miles But still the kings of England were granting those kind of ownership to the colonies And they continued to claim those and only gave them up as late as 1802 So we claimed
207. the whole United States. You know what General George Washington said in 1783? He was only a
208. general then, and he was asked by the Congress, how should we deal with the native peoples?
209. Should we fight a war with them or what should we do? General Washington makes a very famous
210. statement folks that I think was American federal Indian policy until
211. probably 1970 George Washington coined a phrase the savage as the wolf and you
212. can read his letter today it's online he writes James Dwayne one of the Senators
213. and here's his recommendation we don't have to fight Indian people he said
214. because we will get their lands as soon as we want and when we are ready to get
215. victim. He says, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he goes, what happens to the animals of
216. the forest as we advance our frontier? He says, they disappear, don't they? Then he
217. says, it is the same with the savage, quote, the savage as the wolf, close quote. So what
218. Washington was saying is that Indian people will disappear in front of us like the snow
219. disappears before the sun. And that idea was repeated throughout American history. And
220. literally, I believe in tele... What was the termination era about, folks, in the 1950s?
221. Indians are gone, they're disappearing, they're on their way out. But now, in this self-determination
222. era, now in this era where tribes are exercising their authority and their sovereignty, the United
223. States is going, wow, what happened? But that's what George Washington foretold. You know what
224. Thomas Jefferson said, President Jefferson? He said that we will drive the Indians, along with
225. the beasts of the forest into the Rocky Mountains. So he had the same idea that this continent was
226. for Americans and indigenous peoples were to be gotten rid of. Gosh, you all know what the removal
227. era of federal Indian policy is. Thomas Jefferson was the architect of it. He was writing about it
228. in private letters in 1803, long before Andrew Jackson was president and long before the Removal
229. Act was enacted in 1830. James K. Polk runs for president as the Democratic representative in 1844.
230. The Democratic Party platform in 1844 said, we are going to grab Texas. We're going to grab the
231. Oregon country because God meant us to have it and it's ours. James K. Polk runs on the campaign
232. slogan, folks, how many of you remember this? 54-40 or fight. What the heck was he talking about when
233. he said 54-40 or fight? You know you don't run for president with a slogan no one knows, right?
234. So today we forgot it, but everyone alive in 1844 knew what that meant. He wouldn't have used the
235. slogan. 54-40 or fight, folks, means that James K. Polk was using the doctrine of discovery,
236. the international law principle of how large the Oregon country was
237. and what claim the United States had to the Oregon country
238. because we found it first, then Lewis and Clark went there,
239. and then John Jacob Astor builds Astoria and occupies it.
240. Do you know where the 54th degree of parallel is today?
241. It's the very tip of Alaska.
242. We were claiming all of British Columbia and all that blue area
243. because it's the drainage system of the Columbia River.
244. So in 1844, when Polk runs for president, the people know what he's talking about.
245. International law these principles of how Euro claimed new territories just by showing up with their flag or as Meriwether Lewis did with his branding iron Henry Clay who was Secretary of State of the United States in 1825 he was talking about
246. American expansion and he said things aren't going to turn out so well for Indian people.
247. James Clay Polk said it is, and here's quote, impossible to civilize Indians. Dot, dot, dot,
248. they were destined to extinction, period, close quote.
249. So that's what the United States Secretary of State thought in 1825,
250. and that's what he said and wrote.
251. The United States, American people have the right to all of this,
252. and native people are going to disappear.
253. Gee, that's what George Washington said in 1783, isn't it?
254. So manifest destiny was not a new idea, folks.
255. It was just a repetition of these elements of the doctrine of discovery,
256. this idea of European and Christian superiority,
257. and right to the entire world.
258. And so I'll just end very quickly with this
259. because this is the Oregon country.
260. How did the Oregon country become part of the United States?
261. An American found it first, allegedly.
262. First discovery.
263. Robert Gray's boat, that was the name of his ship, folks.
264. So he named the Columbia River after his ship
265. to show the United States claim to the area.
266. President Jefferson then sends Lewis and Clark
267. across the continent and says,
268. build your fort and live at the mouth of the Columbia River.
269. Establish an American claim.
270. And then John Jacob Astor, that American fur trader, tells President Jefferson,
271. I'm thinking of building a trading post on the Pacific Ocean.
272. Oh, maybe at the mouth of the Columbia River.
273. So I don't know how many of you know my state of Oregon,
274. but Astoria is still on the Oregon coast at the very mouth of the Columbia River.
275. And Thomas Jefferson was delighted that an American company was going to build a permanent occupation there.
276. Ah, remember, that's one of the elements of the Doctrine of Discovery.
277. So give me 30 seconds.
278. What's the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery today?
279. Every federal principle that you're aware of comes directly from the Doctrine of Discovery.
280. What are the three fundamental principles of federal Indian law?
281. Congress has plenary power over tribes and can do anything it wants to them, good or bad.
282. Where does that come from?
283. The doctrine of discovery, the power that Europeans claimed and the limited authority of tribes.
284. Second, the trust responsibility.
285. Well, you've all heard that.
286. Why does the United States assume this trust responsibility over tribes?
287. Well, partially because the United States claims this overarching power over Indians and indigenous peoples.
288. And with overarching power comes a trust responsibility.
289. And third, you all know the third fundamental principle, that tribal governments are sovereigns,
290. but their diminished sovereigns.
291. Where does that come from?
292. The ten elements of the doctrine of discovery.
293. Thank you.
294. And that was Professor Robert J. Miller
295. speaking on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery.
296. Professor Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law
297. at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
298. at Arizona State University.
299. He's from the Eastern Shawnee Nation
300. and is the interim chief justice for the Pascua Yaqui Nation Court of Appeals
301. and sits as a judge for other indigenous nations.
302. He is also the author of several books, including Native America,
303. Discovered and Conquered, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny.
304. You're listening to an exclusive archival program
305. on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery.
306. The conference was held within the traditional territories of the O Nation And now we hear from Julie Cavanaugh a Nevada attorney and longtime community activist working with the Western Shoshone Defense Project
307. on defending the Western Shoshone's nations and the Treaty of Ruby Valley.
308. My name is Julie Cavanaugh-Billis. I'm not Shoshone by blood lineage.
309. My husband is Western Shoshone, and I've lived in the territory now for a little over a decade.
310. But my familiar background, my mother's family actually came here from Ireland.
311. That's the Kavanaugh side.
312. And my father's family came from Germany.
313. And so I've been very privileged and honored to work with indigenous peoples for several years now
314. and working especially with Mary and Carrie Dan, the late Corbin Harney,
315. who actually I think was the one that gave the call for folks to join us in stopping Divine Strike.
316. That was the nuclear test.
317. It was an above-ground detonation that would have stirred up all of this radioactive dust
318. that is still down there at the Nevada test site.
319. So it was a very serious situation.
320. And with the help of folks from Tonotira and around the world, actually, we stopped that detonation.
321. But as far as the Western Shoshone struggle, by training, I'm an attorney.
322. That's how I got involved.
323. I actually started working with James Anaya on the Western Shoshone case
324. and taking it to different international forums.
325. And this is after Mary and Carrie Dan, another Western Shoshone,
326. had attempted to find redress here in the United States and through the U.S. court system,
327. eventually ending up in the U.S. Supreme Court,
328. which informed them that once this Indian Claims Commission,
329. which I don't know if Steve Newcomb will talk a little bit about that,
330. but a quasi-judicial system was put in place by Congress under Congress's plenary power,
331. which Professor Miller mentioned,
332. once they had issued a payment, the U.S. Supreme Court said once that payment was issued,
333. you no longer can come to the U.S. courts and argue title.
334. and the Dans and another Shoshone argued back and said, well, we never accepted that payment
335. and we weren't part of the group that went to the Indian Claims Commission in the first place
336. and even those people that went to the Indian Claims Commission didn't get full rights to due process.
337. They didn't get the same rights that even non-Indians are given here in the United States
338. and the Supreme Court said, you know what, the Department of Interior is your trustee
339. and as your trustee they can accept that payment on your behalf, which is what they did,
340. even though they're suing you for trespass in the original litigation,
341. and so therefore you have no access to courts here in the United States.
342. We took this to the international level, first through the Indian Law Resource Center,
343. where Professor Anaya was working, and then through the University of Arizona,
344. Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program.
345. And the international system was appalled.
346. First, at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, back in 2002, we received a
347. public 50-page decision from the Inter-American Commission.
348. This is one of the most respected bodies of human rights in the world.
349. And in that decision, they rejected all of the United States' arguments and said that
350. U.S. was in current violation of due process, rights to property, and right to equality
351. under the law, squarely rejecting U.S. federal Indian law and justification stemming from,
352. as Professor Miller rightly pointed out,
353. the doctrine of discovery.
354. The US acted like they potentially might talk,
355. but basically told us this decision is not binding on us.
356. And the State Department, Department of Justice and Department of Interior attorneys met with us and said,
357. we will not go any farther than what federal Indian law currently provides,
358. which is nothing when it comes to looking at traditional territories and traditional rights.
359. And just as a backdrop, those of you that aren't familiar,
360. Western Shoshone territory is recognized in a fully ratified treaty, the Treaty of Ruby Valley.
361. And you're listening to a special American Indian Airwaves archival program on the impact of the Christian of Doctrine of Discovery. And now back to longtime attorney and activist Julie Cavanaugh-Bill here on American Indian Airwaves.
362. And that treaty was signed in 1863 and then ratified by Congress.
363. At the time, the U.S. Congress had actually convened, and there's legislative history,
364. where they informed the Indian agents going out to negotiate the treaty that they did not want to purchase the land.
365. They were in the middle of a civil war.
366. They wanted access to California to get gold to fund their civil war.
367. They just wanted to get across what is now the state of Nevada,
368. because some of you may know the gold we have in Nevada is microscopic for the most part.
369. So at that time, they didn't realize there was the amount of gold and precious metals in Nevada
370. that they're now realizing are there currently.
371. And so that treaty was ratified, and it recognized boundaries.
372. And those boundaries make up approximately 85 to 90 percent of the state of Nevada.
373. And of that land base, approximately 87% is considered federally managed lands, public lands for the most part,
374. but parts of it where the Yucca Mountain facility is, where the Nevada test site is,
375. those are Department of Energy and Department of Defense managed.
376. So for the most part, the federal government is in control currently of western Shoshone territory.
377. And that has been the challenge at the international level.
378. And so in some ways that's helped because we don't have a lot of conflict with private landowners.
379. Our issues with the federal government, which out in rural Nevada,
380. a lot of the ranchers agree with us because they don't like what the BLM is doing either.
381. So in some ways, like I said, that's helped us gain some support.
382. But in other ways, we're trying to negotiate with basically this invisible headless entity
383. that seems to shift from D.C. to New York to wherever.
384. So negotiations have been very difficult.
385. We then took it when they said the Inter-American Commission wasn't binding on them
386. because they're simply a member of the Organization of American States
387. and they haven't fully ratified any treaty under the Inter-American system.
388. There's a treaty, the Convention on the Rights and Duties of Man.
389. The U.S. has not adopted that.
390. They have simply become a member of the Organization of American States.
391. And so the treaty body, the law that we used was the Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.
392. And they informed us that they don't think it's binding.
393. So we took it to the UN.
394. And we took it to a body called the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
395. The U.S. signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, okay, back in the 1980s.
396. And I guess the attorneys in the State Department that read this document didn't think that it had any
397. implications besides those that the U.S. had already put in place with the Civil Rights Movement and the
398. different civil rights, federal laws that came out of the Civil Rights Movement.
399. What they didn realize is that indigenous people were going to look at that and say you know what we have rights to be free from racial discrimination as well And I tell you what at least from my experience as an
400. attorney, I haven't seen any more racially based, antiquated, and I'm going to use the word,
401. genocide-motivated doctrine than the doctrine of discovery. I mean, that says that because
402. you're non-European and you're non-Christian, that you're less than other human beings.
403. And if you look at some of the case law, I mean, the word savage, childlike, animal-like,
404. beast, these are actually still in current case law in the United States of America and
405. still applied against indigenous peoples.
406. And that is what has been coming out.
407. And that's the way we wrote our briefs to the UN.
408. We call it CERD for short, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
409. The first review of the United States took place in 19, I'm sorry, 2002 was the first review of the United States.
410. And the U.S., we were able to submit questions to the committee.
411. And the committee members, 13 of the 18 committee members,
412. raised questions specifically on Native American and indigenous rights in the United States.
413. The U.S. was not ready for it.
414. They didn't think this was an issue.
415. So their response to the question about what gives the United States the right
416. to claim that they have plenary power over indigenous peoples,
417. that they have the right to unilaterally abrogate
418. indigenous lands and territories
419. without just compensation,
420. without free prior and informed consent?
421. What gives you the right to think you can do that?
422. They cited to Johnson v. McIntosh.
423. They cited to this case that Professor Miller just informed you about
424. that's based on this so-called doctrine of discovery.
425. The committee was appalled.
426. their response, and I was trying to remember the exact quote.
427. I have it in some different things I've kept, but I didn't bring it with me.
428. But it was something to the effect, this expert slammed his fist on the table
429. and said, we are appalled that you would cite to this antiquated racist doctrine
430. that has been rejected by the enlightened members of the international community
431. and that the U.S. would continue to enforce this on the living victims of this doctrine.
432. It was so, I had goosebumps when we had this whole Shoshone delegation with us.
433. This was over in Geneva, Switzerland.
434. And it just made your hair stand on end because for once, publicly, you see this exposed.
435. And that's one thing that we've been talking about because people say, and Tupac said,
436. one of the objectives is to look at, you know, what do we do now?
437. And I think bringing it here locally to state governments, it was interesting.
438. I think it was Senator Jackson mentioned the Indian Commissioner, Representative Hale, one of our two esteemed hosts here today.
439. And that was one of the topics we've been talking about.
440. How about getting state governors to put in place advisory councils of elders?
441. So in Nevada, we have Washoe, Paiute, and Shoshone.
442. We have elders in each of those communities that know things about the land base in the current state of Nevada
443. that could assist in government planning and land management, decision making,
444. not just for the benefit of non-Indians, the benefit of indigenous peoples, but for everyone in the state,
445. and start to get those discussions and dialogues occurring and that level of respect.
446. U.S. federal Indian law and policy, I mean, I think we have a longer road to haul there
447. because one of the responses that we gotten in our case is people saying to us well if you guys win what going to happen We going to have this whole Pandora box of Indian land claims
448. I had a minister from New Zealand tell me, well, if you guys are right,
449. and if we do what the indigenous people in New Zealand are asking for
450. and give them their ancestral land back, recognize their rights.
451. I always say, Kerry Dan always corrects me,
452. not giving back because they've never been taken.
453. and I think Steve's going to, Mr. Newcomb's going to address that,
454. but it's recognition because they're still there.
455. Those rights are still there.
456. Those rights are inherent.
457. No outside colonial body can take those rights away.
458. They are there.
459. So it's a recognition, not a getting back.
460. So I could just hear Kerry, like, correcting me.
461. This minister from New Zealand says, well, if you're right,
462. then we have to recognize the entire country of New Zealand.
463. And I'm thinking in my mind, good, I'm glad you realized that.
464. And then he's, you know, looking at me, terrified, and he says, what would they want us to do?
465. I'll get on boats and leave?
466. And he was serious.
467. And this is, you know, a diplomat at the United Nations.
468. And I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, because I'm always trying to think of how do we move this forward?
469. Instead of, you know, slamming our faces up against a wall or each other, we all live here now.
470. This is the state of this world that we live in now.
471. How do we move forward in a positive way and try to address the redress from the history,
472. but also move forward so we can address what's coming?
473. And I was looking at him, and I was thinking, well, why don't you start by telling the truth?
474. Why don't you start by admitting what's happened?
475. And he just looked at me like this blank look.
476. And I was talking to Raymond Yowell, who is the former chief of the Western Shoshone National Council,
477. the traditional government in Shoshone territory.
478. I was telling him the story and he looks at me and he goes,
479. well, Julie, they've never told the truth.
480. He probably didn't know what you meant.
481. And I thought, wow.
482. So to me, that's one of the things,
483. if we're talking about objectives,
484. and it was also one of our hosts
485. that mentioned the Native American Caucus here.
486. And the purpose is to provide a forum to educate.
487. And that was Nevada-based attorney Julie Kavanaugh-Bill.
488. She is a member of the Western Shoshone Defense Project and has worked tirelessly over the decades to defend the Treaty of Ruby Valley and the traditional and treaty territories of the Western Shoshone Nation.
489. You're listening to an exclusive archival special on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery.
490. In the final segment of today's program, we hear from Stephen Newcomb from the Shawnee-Lenape Nations.
491. He is the author of Pagans in the Promised Land, Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery,
492. and he's the co-producer of the documentary The Doctrine of Discovery, Unmasking the Dominion Code,
493. which is based on his book and directed by Sheldon Wolfchild.
494. And now back to the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery here on American Indian Airwaves.
495. Pay my respects to the ancestors of this land, the O'odham people, and to acknowledge their traditional territory.
496. And also to acknowledge the representatives of the state of Arizona, Representative Hale and Senator Jackson.
497. and say I'm very happy to be here.
498. Some of these subjects that I be talking about are a little bit challenging because they do go into the organic concepts the originating concepts that had resulted in so much devastation for our nations and peoples
499. I'm actually Shawnee and Lenape, our people, our nations are from back in the eastern seaboard area.
500. And so it's interesting to look at how all these things have affected these doctrines as they're called,
501. these concepts, ideas have affected so many nations and peoples throughout the world.
502. world. I want to mention that I think it's key and critical in terms of looking for solutions
503. to honor and respect each and every one of the indigenous nations throughout this land,
504. this continent, this hemisphere, and to speak in terms of the present-day territories of
505. our nations and peoples. For example, I work with the Siquanbana, the Kumeyaay Nation,
506. the Kumeyaay people in the Kumeyaay territory, which is today commonly known as San Diego.
507. But when I travel, people say, where do you live?
508. And I say, I live in the Kumeyaay territory, now today commonly called San Diego.
509. I make sure that I acknowledge that that is still existing
510. because thousands of years of relationship, culturally and spiritually,
511. of a particular nation or people with their land
512. and with all the elements of life within those ecosystems
513. with the waters and everything,
514. that cannot be just negated or canceled out
515. because some other people show up to a shoreline
516. and plant their flag and their cross in the sand or in the land
517. and then make some proclamation in front of a notary
518. and make it an official document to say that they have created rights of sovereignty in that place
519. when they're from somewhere else.
520. And so I want to make sure that I start out by acknowledging that.
521. The other thing I want to mention is that what are these documents we're talking about
522. in terms of the documents issued by the Holy See, what is now commonly understood as the Vatican?
523. And why are those documents so important?
524. When you look at the language of those documents, which I'll quote in a moment,
525. you'll understand some of the reasons why they result in behavior that has been so destructive
526. all throughout the world for indigenous nations and peoples.
527. For example, a papal document issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso of Portugal in 1452,
528. the Pope instructed or authorized the king to go to the western coast of Africa,
529. and this is the direct quoted language,
530. to invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ
531. to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery and to take away all their possessions and property.
532. And the instruction in the document is that they are to convert the land.
533. Of course, they are to engage in religious conversion,
534. but this is specifically to convert the land of the African peoples.
535. And in that context, the word convert means to unlawfully or wrongfully appropriate that which belongs to another.
536. And because that's the way it is,
537. The understanding of the word convert in the very next sentence or the very next section of the document,
538. the Pope declares the actions to be just and lawful.
539. Those kinds of doctrines, that was in 1452, but in 1455, 56, 1481, 1514,
540. other Portuguese-oriented papal documents were issued.
541. But then in 1493, you also had the documents issued by Pope Alexander VI regarding the voyage of Cristobal Colon, otherwise known as Columbus.
542. And you're listening to an archival special here on American Indian Airwaves on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery. And now back to author of the Pagans of the Promised Land, decoding the doctrine of Christian discovery, Stephen Newcomb.
543. And in that document, you find some key phrases.
544. And by the way, these documents are found in a book called European Treaties,
545. bearing on the history of the United States and its dependencies to 1648,
546. published by the Carnegie Institution in 1917.
547. And you can find them in both Latin and English.
548. And any of you very diligent students, I highly recommend that you look at the Latin,
549. and go deep into that Latin language, because that's the language of the Roman Empire.
550. And it's a language system that explains so much of what's going wrong in the world today.
551. But those papal documents from 1493, there are several of them.
552. And there's one sentence in particular in Latin, and it states,
553. And what that means in English is not under the domination of any Christian dominator.
554. And so that dominorum Christianorum is a critically important concept
555. because it's the idea of Christian domination, Christian dominator.
556. There's another sentence in that document that says,
557. We trust in Him, with a capital H on Him, from whom empires and dominations and all good things proceed.
558. And the word for dominations is translated into governments in English.
559. So the singular word for government in that context is dominacion in Latin.
560. So these are very critical, important points and important concepts because they do explain why there are supposed to be checks and balances on government.
561. In other words, the law, the rule of law is not simply to be there for the people, quote-unquote,
562. but it's actually to hold checks on governmental officials and to hold them in check to curb their activities and their actions
563. so that the deadly kind of lethal power that they have at their disposals is held in check by certain things such as a bill of rights and so forth.
564. Now, when you trace these documents forward in history, what you'll find is that the papal documents, along with royal charters of England and many other kinds of charters, which were grants of rights to land and grants of presumed rights of dominion and so forth, you find the organic laws, the source of the organic laws of the United States.
565. And so for example before I came here I thought I should look into how these doctrines of discovery and domination relate to the history of Arizona So I looked in a book called Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters and Other Organic Laws of the United States
566. published in 1877 by the United States Senate and the U.S. Government Printing Office.
567. And what I found is that what gave birth to the territory of New Mexico was an agreement between the Republic of Texas and the United States.
568. And then that organic act of New Mexico, the territorial act of New Mexico, gave birth to the organic act of Arizona.
569. And that resulted in the territory of Arizona.
570. But I still wasn't finding in those two documents anything that seemed particularly relevant.
571. And so what I did was I looked more closely at the language on Texas.
572. But in order to do that, I'm using Google Books.
573. So I go back to the table of contents under Texas.
574. and what I look at there is that it says right under Texas,
575. it says Spanish claims of dominion in the Americas.
576. And then I go back to the book and look under Texas, I'm not finding it.
577. So I have to look more carefully at the table of contents.
578. And then I see it refers me actually to a much earlier part of the book, pages 304 and 305.
579. So I go back to those pages and that refers me to Florida.
580. And interestingly enough, the organic documents, the originating documents for Florida,
581. given in this book published by the United States Senate, are two different documents.
582. One, the royal prerogatives granted to Columbus in 1492,
583. and the second document is the Papal Bull of 1493 issued by Pope Alexander VI to the monarchs of Spain.
584. And that's the very document in which we find the very troubling concepts about domination and so forth.
585. So that means that there's a direct linkage to the organic documents of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,
586. and as a matter of fact, also to California and Utah and Idaho and Colorado,
587. and they all go back, trace back to the Spanish Crown Law and to these other documents.
588. So these are fascinating ways in which all of these ideas give rise to patterns of behavior
589. and claims of territory and dominion on the part of the United States government
590. and various state governments to the detriment of indigenous nations and peoples.
591. In Johnson v. McIntosh, there's a key line that tells you how this all works to carry it through.
592. This is from Chief Justice John Marshall in Johnson v. McIntosh.
593. While the different nations of Europe respected the right of the natives as occupants,
594. they asserted the ultimate dominion to be in themselves
595. and claimed and exercised as a consequence of this ultimate dominion,
596. a power to convey the soil while yet in the possession of the natives.
597. So if you parse that, you pull it apart and you delve deeply into it,
598. it's the idea that they have, just by showing up,
599. they have somehow inherent within themselves this right of Christian domination or Christian dominion as it euphemistically called and that the Indians the heathen original nations and peoples actually have merely a right of heathen occupancy And so that terminology is used throughout
600. Now in 1954, there was a case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court called Tihitan Indians versus United States.
601. and the United States government created a legal brief for that case,
602. and I'm going to quote a couple of lines from that because I think it's critical
603. and it links to what Julie Fishel and Professor Miller have presented on the Doctrine of Discovery.
604. And under the heading of argument, the United States government wrote this,
605. Quote,
606. And it continues.
607. acknowledge as the law by which they should regulate as between themselves the right of
608. acquisition of territory in the new world, which they had found to be inhabited by Indians
609. who were heathens and uncivilized according to European standards." So they're using
610. the exact framework that we're talking about here today in their method of argumentation,
611. And the Supreme Court actually ruled in favor of the United States' position in that case.
612. And when you look at the Tihitan decision, you will not find language specific to Christians
613. in their ruling.
614. They do talk about the idea of Indian title being by permission of the whites to occupy
615. the land.
616. But what the Supreme Court did do in its ruling is cite to Henry Wheaton's Elements of International
617. Law, published in 1836.
618. And I'll just read you a very brief section of that.
619. It says, according to the European ideas of that age, the heathen nations of the other
620. quarters of the globe were the lawful spoil and prey of their civilized conquerors.
621. And as between the European powers themselves, the sovereign pontiff was the supreme arbiter
622. of conflicting claims.
623. Thus the bull of Pope Alexander VI reserved from the grant to Spain all lands which had
624. been previously occupied by any other Christian nation, and the patent granted to Henry VII
625. of England to John Cabot and his sons,
626. authorized them to, quote, seek out, discover, and find
627. all isles and regions and provinces whatsoever that may belong to heathens and infidels and to subdue occupy and possess these territories as his vassals and lieutenants
628. It thus became a maxim of policy and of law
629. that the right of the native Indians
630. was subordinate to that of the first Christian discoverer.
631. And so that is actually what the Supreme Court
632. cited to in its decision to Yatan.
633. When you start to look these concepts up, for example,
634. conquest, conqueror, and so forth, conquer,
635. and subordinate, all these types of terms,
636. there's actually a structure that's
637. been identified by an amazing international law professor
638. named Anthony Ange.
639. And he has published a book called
640. Imperialism, Sovereignty, and the Making
641. of International Law.
642. And in the foreword to that book written by James Crawford, a very eminent international law professor,
643. he mentions that there is a structure of domination and subordination that Professor Angy has identified in international law.
644. And what I've begun to understand is that there's a specific vocabulary of dominance or a vocabulary of domination
645. that has been used repeatedly throughout all these various cases and continue to be used today.
646. And that once we identify that vocabulary, we're then able to decode
647. and understand exactly how that system is operating today.
648. The moment of silence is over.
649. And that was Stephen Newcomb speaking on the impact of the Christian doctrine of discovery
650. here on American Indian Airwaves.
651. And that concludes our show for today.
652. A special thank you to our guests for the hour, Robert J. Miller, Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, and Steve Newcomb.
653. A special thank you to our musical guests, Aragon star Kupa Aina, Wade Fernandez, and the band Blackfire.
654. American Indian Airwaves is mixed and mastered in the studio of Burnt Swamp Studio in Signal Hill, California.
655. For Marcus Lopez, I've been your host for the hour, Larry Smith.
656. Until next time.
657. not to become what they've endured
658. wearing their souls on the thread
659. the moment of silence is over
660. and for the innocent you can't justify
661. why your freedom manifests on their graves
662. and the blood never comes clean
663. from the guilty minds
664. nor the hands that hold the chains
665. In a rhythm of resistance
666. we still fight for our lives
667. In this war that never ended
668. we've outgrown your lies
669. Let our actions speak
670. We need your heart
671. words
672. for all the
673. lies
674. there's a truth
675. that must be heard
676. after all the lies and the
677. empty promises
678. we take a stand
679. on the land that you tried to bury us
680. for all the pain
681. and all the suffering
682. We take a stand
683. We take a stand
684. We sleep cage against our fears