The U.S. Government’s Christian Nations Argument in Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States (1955)

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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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