Doctrine of Discovery
Our Partners have requested that we learn about the Doctrine of Discovery, and that the General Assembly pass a resolution requesting President Obama remove it from our international policy.
When Christopher Columbus first set foot on the white sands of Guanahani island, he performed a ceremony to "take possession" of the land for the king and queen of Spain, acting under the international laws of Western Christendom. Although the story of Columbus' "discovery" has taken on mythological proportions in most of the Western world, few people are aware that his act of "possession" was based on a religious doctrine now known in history as the Doctrine of Discovery. Even fewer people realize that today - five centuries later - the United States government still uses this archaic Judeo-Christian doctrine to deny the rights of Native American Indians. Read Five Hundred Years of Injustice: The Legacy of Fifteenth Century Religious Prejudice by Steve Newcomb of the Indigenous Law Institute.
Steve Newcomb will be at General Assembly 2012.
Indigenous Peoples and Nations want religious movements to repudiate the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and to pressure our government to implement the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PDF).
Open letter (PDF) from Oren Lyons, Faith Keeper, Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, January 2012
Additional Resources
- Unitarian Universalists Uniting to Repudiate the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, and to Endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- The Doctrine of Discovery independent Study Group (Jamesville, NY)
- The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
For more information contact generalassembly@uua.org.
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Last updated on Tuesday, February 14, 2012.
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