History of Doctrine of Discovery is complicated

Graydon Nicholas, a retired lawyer, judge and an elder from the Wolastoqey First Nation in New Brunswick, understands only too well the negative impact of colonization on Indigenous people in the Americas.

He also understands the role the Roman Catholic Church played in it through what became known as the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that by “discovering” the Americas, colonizing countries like Spain and Portugal could claim Indigenous land as their own.

But Nicholas, who is Roman Catholic, also believes the story is more complicated than most people realize and also incomplete without noting opposition from those in the Church during that age of discovery and conquest.

That includes Dominican priests such as Antonio de Montesinos, who publicly condemned Spanish and Portuguese abuses against Indigenous people in the Americas during that time.

In a sermon in 1511 in what is today Haiti, de Montesinos preached that the colonists were committing mortal sins because of their treatment of Indigenous peoples. “Are these not men? Do they not have rational souls?” he asked.

Bartolomé de las Casas was another Dominican priest who spoke out against the abuses of the colonizers. He spent decades defending Indigenous rights, opposing their forced labour and arguing they had the same human dignity as Europeans.

And then there was Francisco de Vitoria, also a Dominican priest and a personal favourite of Nicholas. De Vitoria never travelled to the Americas, but he wrote that Indigenous peoples legitimately owned their land and it couldn’t be taken away by Europeans simply because they weren’t Christians.

These arguments did not sit well with the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, who resented Vatican meddling in their colonial enterprises. “Why didn’t they listen to those priests and recognize the Indigenous people for who they were?” Nicholas asks, noting the colonizers they claimed to be followers of Christ. “They threw away their Christian values.”

Someone was listening, though: Pope Paul III. In 1537, encouraged by the priests, he issued a Papal Bull, or official church teaching, declaring that Indigenous people are fully human and must not be deprived of their freedom or lands. This remains the official position of the Roman Catholic Church — it was affirmed in 1987 by Pope John Paul II when he visited Canada.

In a speech to Indigenous peoples at Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, John Paul II referred to Pope Paul III’s 1537 Bull and stated: “My presence among you today marks my reaffirmation and reassertion of that teaching.”

Nicholas shared his views about early opposition in the Roman Catholic Church at a May 26-29 symposium in Edmonton about the Doctrine of Discovery and the enduring negative impact of colonialism on Indigenous peoples in the Americas.

The symposium, which was organized by Archbishop Donald Bolen of Regina under the auspices of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, brought together Indigenous leaders, scholars and bishops from Canada, the U.S. and other countries to talk about the legacy of colonialism and the impact of what came to be called the Doctrine of Discovery.

The goal of the event was to discuss and build on a 2023 statement from the Vatican that formally repudiates anything that fails to “recognize the inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples.”

Douglas Lind, a professor of philosophy and law at Virginia Tech, was a presenter at the symposium.

Lind argued there never was, in fact, a single “doctrine” of discovery that can be attributed only to the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, he said, there were multiple doctrines, ideas and policies that were created by European nations to allow them to claim Indigenous land in the Americas as their own.

What we now call the “Doctrine of Discovery” was codified into law in the U.S. in 1823 when the U.S. Supreme Court used what it called the “discovery” principle to rule that Indigenous people in that country did not possess title of the lands they once owned — they were only occupants of those lands.

That ruling legitimized and embedded colonial conquest into American law. It was affirmed as recently as 2005 by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a case that denied the Oneida Nation of New York sovereignty over its former lands.

Also at the symposium was Marcelle Marion, who is Métis and who is a legal director for Legal Aid Manitoba. She found it to be a good learning experience.

“It was not an official church teaching,” she said of the Doctrine of Discovery, noting that the issue is complicated.

But no matter what it’s called, said Marion, who is Roman Catholic, Indigenous people suffered because of it and, to this day, “are treated as conquered people.”

For Bolen, the symposium provided a frame of reference for future discussions about how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can “walk together in a good way and stand in solidarity together as we address the negative aspects of colonization.”

It wasn’t an end point, but the start of ongoing conversations, he said. “We want to keep it going, to create a community where perspectives can be shared.”

Jdl562000@yahoo.com

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