Well friends, this describes my experience learning about the Doctrine of Discovery!
The first weekend in August, I was fortunate to be able to attend the annual gathering of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, held in The Dalles, Oregon. The Doctrine of Discovery is a philosophical and legal framework, dating to the 15th century, that gave Christian governments moral and legal rights to invade and seize Indigenous lands. It explains European and European-American “success” in colonizing other places, extracting resources, and dominating, even enslaving or killing, the people they found in lands they had “discovered.”
It’s fairly easy to see the past harms that resulted from this doctrine, which has been encoded in Papal Bulls, Royal Charters, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. What’s harder, and much more painful to see, is how this doctrine continues to operate today. This “water” we’re all swimming in, explains why I have an elite education, why I earned a six-figure salary, and why I own the deed to a duplex — it explains why deeds and “private property” even exist at all in North America!
And this Doctrine of Discovery is why mining companies are allowed to profit from extracting fossil fuels and minerals on Indigenous Lands — in the U.S. and abroad, while the pollution they cause puts human lives at risk.
So, once wealthy, white, land-owners like me learn about this, what do we do?
There is no easy answer. Individual changes can be important, but the Coalition’s focus is systemic change. They‘re currently working on a 100-year plan…
The Coalition notes that the Doctrine originated with the Christian church, so it holds the church responsible for dismantling it. But even for someone like me, Christian-descendant but not a church member, there’s plenty to dig into! The Coalition umbrella is broad enough that it now includes a Buddhist Working Group! This group has already led a delegation to visit Oak Flat, supporting Apache Stronghold’s efforts in Arizona to protect their sacred lands from being destroyed by a copper mine.
During our weekend in the Dalles, we heard a challenging talk by writer and consultant Mark Charles. Mark “teaches the complexities of American History regarding race, culture, and Christendom in order to help forge a path of healing and conciliation for the nation.” Here’s a helpful analogy Mark offers us:
Being Native American and living in the United States feels like our Indigenous Peoples are an old grandmother who lives in a very large house. It is a beautiful house with plenty of rooms and comfortable furniture. But, years ago, some people came into our house and locked us upstairs in the bedroom. Today, our house is full of people. They are sitting on our furniture. They are eating our food. They are having a party in our house. They have since unlocked the door to our bedroom but it is much later and we are tired, old, weak and sick; so we can’t or don’t come out. But the part that is the most hurtful and that causes us the most pain, is that virtually no one from this party ever comes upstairs to find us in the bedroom, sits down next to us on the bed, takes our hand, and simply says, “Thank you. Thank you for letting us be in your house.”
So I’m beginning to learn about Indigenous Peoples who live near my home in Corvallis, Oregon. My partner and I camped out at a beautiful pow-wow last weekend hosted by a confederation of local tribes. There was even a moment when the MC called the hosting confederation’s members into the arena to form an inner circle, facing out. Then he called the rest of us down to form an outer circle, to shake hands with those inside. I hesitated. Saying a simple “thank you” felt trivial in light of all I’ve been learning. But then I remembered Mark Charles’ above analogy and my partner and I climbed down from the bleachers to join the outer circle. We got to say “thank you for having us here,” over and over, as we shook hands with children, adults and elders of all shapes, sizes and colors!
This Thursday, I’ll start attending on-line meetings for an Oregon-based, Indigenous-led group specializing in cross-cultural work. If this goes well, I may be invited to participate in an on-line training program next year. In the meantime, I’m reading and learning what I can. And I’m starting to look at my investments… I’m learning to notice my own privilege.
I saw this quote on a sign carried by a young woman during a recent immigrant-rights action in Salem: “Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because you aren’t affected personally.”
White folks like me have had the privilege of being oblivious about the Doctrine of Discovery. But what I’m also learning is that it has been affecting us personally all along, in ways we haven’t been aware of. During the gathering, we discussed how those of us raised in white European-American culture may not have many experiences or practices around grieving.
We also discussed less obvious forms of grief, such as one described by death worker Rachael Rice: grieving harms we’ve caused to others, either directly or indirectly. We have been taught to turn off emotions which might otherwise compel us to speak out against injustice and violence. In his book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller writes, “Through our ability to acknowledge the layers of loss we can truly discover our capacity to respond, to protect, to restore, what has been damaged.”
As new as I am to learning about the Doctrine of Discovery, I am already benefitting from the invitation into the “communal hall of grief” I experienced there. I am already feeling the joy of new connections, and the relief of knowing I will find ways to reduce my participation in harming others.
