Sixty-six years ago, in November of 1954, the U.S. Justice Department submitted a bizarre argument to the Supreme Court in the case Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States. The United States argued that the Tee-Hit-Ton Band of Tlingit Indians in Alaska should not receive monetary compensation for a taking of timber from their Tlingit territory. Why?
Categoryfederal Indian law
“God’s” Gift of a Right of Domination
In the Old Testament of the Bible, we find the story of a god who chose a particular people with whom he wanted to have a special relationship. Because he chose them, they are known as his “chosen people.” The deity promised a vast amount of land to his chosen people, but, unfortunately, it was
Trump’s Speech at Mt. Rushmore: The Bully at the Bully Pulpit
President Donald J. Trump delivered a speech on July 3, 2020 at the mountain formation which the people of the Oceti Sakowin (or “the Great Sioux Nation”) call “the Sixth Grandfather” (Tunkasila Sakpe Nake Kihe in the Lakota language). While watching Trump give that speech, I got the impression that he was attempting to shore
How Their Domination Began
Here is the cover of a book that I found in a used bookstore in Rapid City, South Dakota in the Oceti Sakowin Territory. This book was published in 1954, the year my wife Paige was born and the year before I was born. The format of the book seems designed to teach children the
When Will We Stop Accepting a Reality-System of Domination?
A former professor of mine, C. A. Bowers (1935-2017), was a brilliant and prolific writer who wrote 27 books. He cautioned against people applying to themselves the arguments that a formidable opponent or enemy has skillfully created, and successfully used against them. If you use your opponents’ arguments against yourself, he warned, you will have
Reconciliation and Canada’s Claim of a Right of Domination Over Native Nations
Let’s take a closer look at the Truth and Reconciliation process embraced by Canada. In one context, “to reconcile” means “to restore a friendship.” Let’s be clear. It is not possible to “restore” a friendship that neverexisted between the dominating society of Canada and the Original Nations and Peoples of the continent. Let’s consider another
Finding the Papal Bull Documents
In 1988, I realized that I had never actually read the original language from the papal bulls of the fifteenth century. I had only read a few sentences quoted in various sources such as Vine Deloria, Jr.’s God is Red and Wilcomb Washburn’s Red Man’s Land White Man’s Law. I remember wondering at a certain
A Thought
As far as the colonizers were concerned, we were never supposed to survive let alone master the papal documents and legal doctrines of Christian domination that nearly led to our complete eradication. We’ve walked through the fire of a centuries-long genocidal onslaught, and, yet, we press on. We have scars but we’re still standing. We’ve
Examples of Domination and Racism in an Excerpt from the book America Moves West (Third Edition), Robert E. Riegel, New York: Henry Holt and Company (1957).
REMOVING THE INDIAN MENACE Early settlers in the West were surrounded by numerous dangers, by no means the least was the Indian. While the Indian was in many ways an interesting and admirable person, he made a very unpleasant neighbor for the white frontiersman. From time to time, and without due formality, he went to
A Brief Comment About Supreme Court Reaffirms the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination
In what is being described as a “landmark” 5-4 decision, McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court decided today that Congress never violated a 1866 treaty between the free and independent Creek Nation and the United States by explicitly and unilaterally disestablishing the Creek Nation’s territory, which the Supreme Court called “a reservation.” We see incoherent
The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code
At long last, here is our movie directed by Sheldon Wolfchild (Dakota) and based on my book Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Fulcrum, 2008).
Tecumseh’s Speech
Tecumseh’s Speech The following is a speech by the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh, as recounted by the Pottawatomie leader, Chief Simon Pokagon. Simon Pokagon wrote: “My father and many others who listened to the speeches of Tecumseh many times repeated to me his words when I was a boy, but it was impossible to give