Dr. June Lorenzo and the Doctrine of Discovery

This past Monday the Josephy Center was privileged to host Peacemaker Dr. June Lorenzo for a talk on Community Peace and Justice.

Dr. Lorenzo, a member of the Laguna Pueblo and Diné (Navajo Nation), is an attorney and human rights advocate who holds both a JD and a PhD. She practices law in New Mexico and has advocated for the rights of Indigenous People before the United Nations and the Organization of American States. She is a member and clerk of session at Laguna United Presbyterian Church (Pueblo of Laguna), the only Native American congregation in the Presbytery of Santa Fe. June is also engaged in advocacy on uranium legacy issues, which are related to the protection of sacred areas.

She did indeed give an update on the legacy of uranium mining on Tribal lands in the Southwest, where there is a legacy of fouled water, mining waste, and illness among the people. This of course prompted thoughts of uranium mining in Southeast Oregon and the legacy of the Hanford nuclear site.

But the bulk of Dr. Lorenzo’s talk was given to the lasting impact of the Doctrine of Discovery. For me, the new and exciting piece in her presentation was how wedded we all are to the concepts and ideas current in the times and places we live. I have read quite a bit about the Doctrine of Discovery, and years ago I passed tests on feudalism and European wars and spheres of power. But I had not tied the words of the Papal Bull of 1493 with the gestalt, the common understandings of law and governments of the time, and certainly not with application to American law in the 1820s and 30s, and its lingering influences today.

While I was whittling away at these thoughts, others were asking “what the heck is the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’?” and “how can what was basically a religious pronouncement—the Papal Bull”—be adopted into American Law?

So on Tuesday this week, rather than having a Tuesday Talk speaker, we will have a discussion of the Doctrine of Discovery and its role in American history and Indian Law. I hope you can join us, and maybe I’ll get Seth and DJ to figure out a way to stream or at least record the conversation.

Bring your thoughts and questions. And here are a couple of things to chew on between now and then.

1. According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

“The Papal Bull ‘Inter Caetera,’ issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year…
“The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be ‘discovered,’ claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that ‘the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.’ This ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion.

2. From Paul Vandevelder in the book, Coyote Warrior:

Chief Justice Marshall, in his 1823 majority opinion, called the Indian tribes “domestically dependent sovereign nations.” Tribes could not make their own treaties with other nations, and they were tied to the federal and not state governments. Because:

“The feudal rights of conquest over new lands and the savages who lived there had been seen as the exclusive domain of the crown. With a simple sleight of hand, Marshall substituted discovery-era monarchs with the republic of the United States. In Marshall’s perfect world, the federal government’s new role in Indian Country would be that of the enlightened and benevolent despot.”

The Marshall Decisions of the 1820s and 30s are still considered the basis of American Indian Law!

# # #