By Kaniehtonkie.

After nearly 500 years after papal decrees were used to rationalize Europe’s colonial conquests around the world, the Vatican repudiated those decrees on Thursday, March 30, 2023. The Doctrine of Discovery made possible the Indian Act, the residential school system, the removal of Indigenous Peoples from traditional lands to reserves, the criminalization of our languages and our traditional ceremonies. The Doctrine of Discovery made possible all of its genocidal laws and policies. Now, after hundreds of years, the Vatican is saying the “Doctrine of Discovery” that was used to justify annihilating Indigenous people’s culture and livelihoods is ‘not part of the Catholic faith.’

The Doctrine of Discovery has been cited in different arenas for centuries, including by the U.S. Supreme Court — as early as 1823 and as recently as 2005.

In 1823 U.S. Supreme Court case of Johnson v. M’Intosh, Chief Justice John Marshall used the doctrine to assert that the United States, as the successor of Great Britain, had inherited authority over all lands within our claimed boundaries. This decision allowed the U.S. government to legally ignore or invalidate any native claims to property. To this day courts continue to cite this legal precedent. It is still being used by courts to decide property rights cases brought by Native Americans against the U.S. and against non-Natives.

In 2005, the United States Supreme Court relied on a series of Indian law cases going back to 1823, specifically cited the Doctrine in its decision denying the right of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York to regain its territory – City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, 544 U.S. 197 (2005), was a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands 200 years later did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the 2005 decision. “Under the Doctrine of Discovery … fee title to the land occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign – first the discovering European nation and later the original States and the United States.”

The Doctrine of Discovery is the basis for Indian land law in the United States and Canada, and it has imposed similar burdens on Indigenous peoples all over the world – Australia, New Zealand, in Africa, in Latin America and in the island nations of the Caribbean and Oceania.

The Rev. David McCallum, executive director of the Program for Discerning Leadership based in Rome, told NPR. The papal bulls “were not considered valid just 30 to 40 years after they were first issued. They were in fact abrogated legally and nullified by the Vatican by the late 1530s,” McCallum told NPR. The Vatican’s nullification was too late to stop the destructive impact of colonialism, McCallum said, noting that European expansion was fueled by a “sort of missionary sense that the Western monarchies had a right to go to these new lands and to take from them their resources and if necessary to put down people, including enslaving them.”

“Back in the in the 19th century, it was used as a precedent which gave people a sense of title to land that had not been owned with an official title in deed,” McCallum said.

“As a result of this being written into the American property law, it was actually considered a precedent.”

Closer to home, Kenneth Deer, Kahnawake, Chairperson Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee shared his views on the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery saying the Doctrine was the building blocks of colonialism. Still 500 years to make up for and you can’t make that with one statement.”

Deer points to other parts of their statement where the Vatican seem to distance itself and the Doctrine form colonization saying these documents were manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples.

The Vatican’s statement read, “ The Doctrine of Discovery is not part of the teachings of the Catholic Church, to which Deer said, “They are in denial.”

I think the Vatican is very much in denial saying those papal bulls were not Christian doctrine. They are still being cited in North American court decisions on Indigenous land claims.

Deer said, “The Vatican should fully rescind the Doctrine and make clear that it should no longer be as a legal justification for occupying Indigenous lands.”

Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, and Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, issued the following statement in response to the Catholic Church’s rejection of the Doctrine of Discovery: “For years, Indigenous Peoples have called on the Vatican to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, a racist Doctrine that was exploited by governments to enforce colonial systems and policies. This Doctrine was used to take land from Indigenous communities and justify atrocities committed against Indigenous Peoples. It is part of Canada’s shameful history, and its legacy continues to impact Indigenous Peoples to this day…

We acknowledge the Catholic Church’s response to the calls from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Survivors, Elders, leaders, and communities, and its rejection of the Doctrine of Discovery. This repudiation supports the healing of Indigenous Peoples who have been impacted by the legacy of colonialism. In its statement, the Catholic Church was clear – Papal Bulls did not reflect the rights and dignity of Indigenous Peoples, and that this Doctrine was manipulated for political use by colonial powers. This was a failure of the Catholic Church to uphold the inherent human rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the acknowledgement of this failure, by the Vatican, is an important step as we work towards reconciliation…

The Government of Canada accepts that ancient doctrines such as this have no place in Canadian law and do not define our ongoing relationships with Indigenous Peoples…

The repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery by the Catholic Church is an important action showing that Indigenous voices, that were ignored for centuries, are being heard. This is only one of many necessary steps in continuing the dialogue of reconciliation and renewing the relationship with Indigenous Peoples.”

There are very few Indigenous people who haven’t been ravaged by the Doctrine – the Sullivan Clinton Campaign was ordered and organized by George Washington and his staff upon the Onondaga. They believed it was necessary to destroy the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and violate the treaties in order to expand the colonies and pay colonial troops. The Sullivan Clinton campaign was conducted in the lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

In a letter from George Washington to John Sullivan, Washington wrote, “taking the war home to the enemy to break their morale…’ But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected. Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them.”

More than 40 Onondaga villages and stores of winter crops were burned and destroyed and since then, every U.S. president to this day is known as Hanadagá:yas – The Town Destroyer.

Bishop Douglas Lucia of the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., said he believes the statement will lead to more dialogue, “The call ‘to walk side by side’ is especially poignant in this land of the Onondaga and Haudenosaunee where there exists the ‘Two Row Wampum,’ “ Lucia told NPR via email. “It is a 1613 agreement of how the Haudenosaunee would treat the new settlers on their land based on friendship, peace, and forever.”

With the Vatican taking a formal stance, Lucia added, the Christian community can acknowledge its own failings and work with Indigenous peoples to embody that 1613 agreement.

In a statement released following the historic papal visit by Pope Francis to Canada in 2022, Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of Taykwa Tagamou Nation said she had called on the Pope during her meeting with the pontiff to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery.

She personally called on him to formally revoke the Doctrine of Discovery. “Renouncing and formally revoking the ‘Inter Caetera’ 1493 Doctrine of Discovery is an essential step for advancing reconciliation and the healing path forward,” National Chief Archibald stated. “So too are immediate calls to return diocese land back to First Nations and returning sacred items currently being held both in storage and on public display at the Vatican.”

While some are celebrating the Vatican’s announcement, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NNABSHC) says the Vatican’s statement “lacks accountability.”

NNABSHC spoke to ITC, “While the Vatican’s decision to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery is the right one, it downplays the Church’s role and accountability for the harm it has caused to Native peoples. It does not change the fact that the Church’s views gave permission to colonizers to take Native lands and assimilate Native peoples,” said Deborah Parker, Tulalip and CEO of the coalition. “We demand more from the Catholic Church. We demand more transparency, including access to Indian boarding school documents, which they have refused to provide. We demand that the Church returns lands to the Tribal Nations in which it operated Indian boarding schools.”

The coalition also demands that the church supports the Truth and Healing Bill that would look at the U.S. assimilation policies for U.S. boarding schools, and respect for sovereignty and “Indigenous ways of being.”

“We believe these are ways in which the Church can begin to take accountability for their actions,” the NNABSHC statement reads.

The National Congress of American Indians, Washington, D.C., commended the Catholic Church’s move.

“It is our sincere hope that today’s announcement is more than mere words, but rather is the beginning of a full acknowledgement of the history of oppression and a full accounting of the legacies of colonialism – not just by the Roman Catholic Church, but by all the world governments that have used racism, prejudice and religious authority to not only justify past inequalities, but to allow, fuel, and perpetuate the institutionalization of those inequalities that continue to this very day,” their statement read.