For decades, Indigenous people from all over the western hemisphere have asked the Catholic Church to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Church finally acquiesced on March 30, 2023.
Because of this, I almost chose another narrative for this project, but the damage that has been done by this over the past several centuries is not so easily undoable.
In its statement on rescinding the Doctrine of Discovery, the Catholic Church claims that the papal bulls were never an official expression of the Catholic faith, and that colonial powers had “manipulated” these documents to “justify immoral acts against Indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesial authorities.”
And yet it all began with the very first pope… (or so they say).
Below is a list of resources used in creating this short project.
- Alvord, Clarence Walworth. “The Daniel Boone Myth.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984), vol. 19, no. 1/2, 1926, pp. 16–30.
- Baigell, Matthew. “Territory, Race, Religion: Images of Manifest Destiny.” Smithsonian Studies in American Art, vol. 4, no. 3/4, 1990, pp. 3–21.
- Cartwright, Mark. “Bartolomé de Las Casas.” World History Encyclopedia, 17 June 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/Bartolome_de_las_Casas/.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM. Accessed 11 May 2023.
- Charles, Mark, and Soong-Chan Rah. Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. IVP, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019.
- Coles, Roberta L. “Manifest Destiny Adapted for 1990s’ War Discourse: Mission and Destiny Intertwined.” Sociology of Religion, vol. 63, no. 4, Dec. 2002, pp. 403–26. Silverchair, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712300.
- Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2014.
- Echo-Hawk, Walter R. In the Courts of the Conquerer: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided. Fulcrum Publishing, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/smith/detail.action?docID=547517.
- Gómez, Laura E. Manifest Destinies, Second Edition: The Making of the Mexican American Race. 2nd ed., NYU Press, 2018. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1pwt9vn.
- Initiative, Indigenous Values. “Dum Diversas.” Doctrine of Discovery, 23 July 2018, https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/dum-diversas/.
- —. “The Bull Romanus Pontifex.” Doctrine of Discovery, 23 July 2018, https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/the-bull-romanus-pontifex-nicholas-v/.
- —. “What Is the Doctrine of Discovery?” Doctrine of Discovery, 30 July 2018, https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/what-is-the-doctrine-of-discovery/.
- Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition | DocsTeach. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/jefferson-confidential-message-relations-indians.
- Juster, Susan, et al. Sacred Violence in Early America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bd6kcm.
- Kades, Eric. “Dark Side of Efficiency: Johnson v. M’Intosh and the Expropriation of American Indian Lands.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 148, no. 4, Apr. 2000, p. 1065.
- “Lewis & Clark Expedition.” National Archives, 15 Aug. 2016, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lewis-clark.
- Magazine, Smithsonian. “America’s True History of Religious Tolerance.” Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/.
- Manifest Destiny Painting, 1872 | The American Yawp Reader. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny-2/.
- Manifest Destiny Reader | The American Yawp Reader. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny/.
- McNamara, Robert. “What Was the Real Reason For the Lewis and Clark Expedition?” ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/lewis-and-clark-expedition-1773873.
- “Monroe Doctrine (1823).” National Archives, 25 June 2021, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine.
- Newcomb, Steven. Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Chicago Review Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/smith/detail.action?docID=478758.
- Paul, Heike. “Christopher Columbus and the Myth of ‘Discovery.’” The Myths That Made America, Transcript Verlag, 2014, pp. 43–88. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wxsdq.5.
- Picturing US History – John Gast, American Progress, 1872. https://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/john-gast-american-progress-1872/.
- Press, NICOLE WINFIELD Associated. “Responding to Indigenous, Vatican Rejects Discovery Doctrine.” Cherokeephoenix.Org, 3 Apr. 2023, https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/news/responding-to-indigenous-vatican-rejects-discovery-doctrine/article_98071b2e-d223-11ed-97cc-5bb3ca6541d0.html.
- Queen Elizabeth I: Colonising America. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/queen-elizabeth-i-colonising-america.
- Richard Hakluyt Makes the Case for English Colonization, 1584 | The American Yawp Reader. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/colliding-cultures/richard-hakluyt-makes-the-case-for-english-colonization-1584/.
- Richardson, Heather Cox. How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. Oxford University Press, 2020.
- Robertson, Lindsay G. Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands. Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/smith/detail.action?docID=3051950.
- The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493 | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493.
- (U.S. National Park Service). Abraham Lincoln and the West – Homestead National Historical Park. 7 Feb. 2022, https://www.nps.gov/home/learn/historyculture/lincolnandwest.htm.
- VI, Pope Alexander. “Inter Caetera.” Papal Encyclicals, 4 May 1493, https://www.papalencyclicals.net/alex06/alex06inter.htm.
- Ward, John William. Andrew Jackson : Symbol for an Age. New York : Oxford University Press, 1962. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/andrewjacksonsym0000ward.
- Williams, Robert A., Jr., and Robert A. Williams. The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest. Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1990. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/smith/detail.action?docID=272800.