Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery

The Doctrine of Discovery Project
  • 5.0 (27)
  • RELIGION

The Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery podcast, hosted by Philip P. Arnold and Sandy Bigtree (Mohawk Nation), critically examines the historical and ongoing impacts of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Rooted in 15th-century papal edicts, this doctrine provided theological and legal justification for European colonialism, the seizure of Indigenous lands, and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples. The podcast explores how these principles became codified in U.S. law, from Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) to Sherrill v. Oneida (2005), and continue to underpin contemporary legal, religious, and corporate frameworks. Featuring discussions with scholars, legal experts, and Indigenous leaders, the series sheds light on how this doctrine fuels environmental destruction, economic exploitation, and cultural genocide while also highlighting Indigenous resistance and calls for justice, land restoration, and the repudiation of these colonial structures. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en. Learn more: podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org.

  1. 1D AGO

    Inside The Seven Mountains Mandate And The Rise Of Turning Point USA

    Power rarely announces itself as a plan. Here, it does. We dive into the Seven Mountains mandate with Matthew Boedy, tracing how Turning Point USA evolved from a campus brand into a nationwide movement designed to seize cultural institutions—education, government, religion, family, business, media, and entertainment. Instead of winning hearts one by one, the strategy aims to install a committed minority atop the systems that shape everyday life. We unpack the tactics: a tight messaging playbook that turns complex theology into viral lines, prosperity narratives that double as fundraising engines, and a pipeline that starts in high school chapters and extends into church networks. Bodie breaks down the budgets, donor ecosystems, and conference circuits that blend worship with political training, alongside the professor watch lists and school board campaigns that frame universities and the humanities as corrupting forces rather than civic goods. From our perspective, the doctrine of discovery offers a crucial lens: centuries ago, Christian power targeted Indigenous identity, family, and land to rewire society from the top down. The same drive to control institutions resurfaces now under a new banner. We connect these threads to the UK’s Revolution 250 project and the overlooked influence of Haudenosaunee governance on democratic thought, arguing that honest history isn’t a luxury—it’s a civic defense. Where does this leave us? With a long game. Defending democracy means building majority movements grounded in free speech, pluralism, and resilient institutions. It means teaching democracy across disciplines, protecting spaces of inquiry, and telling fuller stories that expand our shared civic imagination. If you care about universities, local school boards, independent media, or the simple right to disagree in public without fear, this conversation offers tools and urgency in equal measure. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who cares about democracy, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Your voice helps strengthen the institutions we all depend on. Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    57 min

  2. 5D AGO

    S06E06: Sacred Waters: Trauma of the Erie Canal

    A celebrated waterway can also be a wound. We open the Erie Canal’s familiar legend and find the story most of us never learned: how a triumph of engineering cut a dam through Haudenosaunee homelands, accelerated dispossession, and rewrote law, faith, and landscape in its wake. With Haudenosaunee leaders and scholars, we move from a condensed Thanksgiving Address into original instructions about water, winds, and the seven generations ethic, then confront the doctrine of Christian discovery—from papal bulls to Johnson v. M’Intosh—still echoing through U.S. property law. Along the towpath, we trace the canal’s hidden cargo: land speculation, conflicts of interest, alcohol and other “mind changers,” and the quiet burial of treaty promises like Canandaigua’s “forever.” We connect those ruptures to the burned-over district, where new American religions—Latter-day Saints, Millerites, spiritualists, Shakers—flared as migrants grappled with dislocation and meaning. The canal didn’t just move grain; it moved imaginations, laws, and borders, often at the expense of communities who had long practiced diplomacy through the Great Law of Peace and the Two Row Wampum’s commitment to travel side by side without interference. We also spotlight the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center’s work to flip the narrative on unceded Onondaga Nation territory, centering Indigenous values and living governance rather than artifacts. This is not nostalgia; it’s a practical invitation to measure progress by future faces, to see water as kin, and to treat treaties as living commitments. Press play to rethink what the Erie Canal made—and unmade—and to imagine a path from commemoration to repair. If this conversation moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find these stories. Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    1h 36m

  3. FEB 10

    S06E05: The Sloan Lecture - The Oneidas, the Best Land, and the Erie Canal - By Susan Brewer

    We trace the Erie Canal’s celebrated corridor through one farm in Oneida, New York, revealing how innovation rode alongside broken treaties, pressured sales and the erasure of Oneida lives. Through the intertwined stories of Polly Denny and Angel De Ferrier and the Brewer family, we face the costs of progress and the weight of paperwork. • why the Mohawk Valley corridor made the land strategically vital • Fort Stanwix line splitting Oneida towns and futures • Oneida alliance with the Americans and postwar betrayal • Angel De Ferrier and Polly Denny as cultural go-betweens • New York’s illegal “treaties of purchase” and legal sleight of hand • Skenandoa’s warning and the vanishing myth in print • paperwork dispossession through surveys, mortgages and courts • canal, railroad and thruway turning Wampsville into a boomtown • erasure of Polly in local memory and records • tenant to owner: Brewer family path on the best land • land claims, sovereignty and a modern economic reversal If you like this episode, review it on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    52 min

  4. FEB 3

    S06E04: Clearing Iroquoia: New York’s Land Grab in the 1779 Campaigns of the American Revolution

    We trace how the Sullivan–Clinton campaign was conceived and executed as a land seizure against the Haudenosaunee, not a simple response to raids. We follow letters, orders, and deals that moved from neutrality to burning villages, then to surveys, the military tract, and the canal. • rewriting the Sullivan–Clinton narrative as a campaign for land • Dunmore’s War as a template for destroying food and homes • Schuyler’s ultimatum ending neutrality at German Flats • propaganda around the Cedars, Wyoming and Cherry Valley • Onondaga targeted despite seeking neutrality • Washington’s confirmed orders to destroy corn and orchards • starvation at Niagara during the record winter of 1779–1780 • surveyors following troops and the creation of the military tract • Schuyler’s role in backroom claims and early canal planning • how the Erie Canal overlays dispossessed Haudenosaunee lands Please check our website at podcast.doctrine of discovery.org for more information If you like this episode, review it on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    1h 6m

  5. JAN 26

    S06E03: How Rethinking God, Gender, And Nature Can Heal A Burning World

    A campfire changes the kind of conversation you can have. With scholar and wilderness guide Kimberly Carfore, we lean into that flame to ask why so much of Western faith and culture treats the earth—and women—as subordinate, and how we can reorient toward relationship in a century of fires, floods, and frayed trust. Kim’s journey from Catholic roots to ecofeminist theology and back into the woods becomes a map for courage: teaching friction fire as a spiritual discipline, founding Wild Women to empower outdoor connection, and wrestling honestly with appropriation, reverence, and responsibility. We trace how dominionist readings of Genesis 1:28 fueled the Doctrine of Discovery, witch burnings, and modern domination systems, then pull forward correctives from multiple wells. Haudenosaunee wisdom reframes peace as right relationship with the natural world; cultural burning and Indigenous fire stewardship model care that prevents catastrophe. Ecofeminist thinkers like Val Plumwood expose the human superiority reflex, while theologians such as Sally McFague invite us to imagine the earth as the Body of God—and perhaps, as Kim suggests, as Mother—so power becomes care, not control. Along the way, we get practical and personal: breath as a plant-human exchange, ancestry as orientation rather than shame, climate impacts on marathon times as a tangible signal, and the way a simple fire-making practice can restore agency without conquest. If we’re serious about climate solutions, we need more than technology; we need new theologies, renewed kinship, and places to gather, listen, and act together. Join us to rethink dominion, recover relationship, and tend the ember that connects us. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves big ideas by a warm fire, and leave a review to help others find the conversation. What image of the sacred would help you live differently tomorrow? Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    1h 1m

  6. JAN 22

    S6E02: A Theologian Confronts the Doctrine of Discovery and Calls for Institutional Repair

    Jeannine Hill Fletcher, a theologian trained to interpret religious diversity, arrives at a white, Jesuit university and realizes something unsettling: you can’t do justice work without confronting the white supremacy woven through Christian history, law, and institutional life. That realization sends us down a path that threads together the Doctrine of Discovery, Johnson v. M’Intosh, and the everyday ways theology became policy—on campus, in courts, and across stolen land. We talk with Jeannine Hill Fletcher about naming “the sin of white supremacy” before and after Charlottesville, and how her new work shifts from national narrative to institutional repair. The conversation moves from Maryland’s Jesuit land grants and enslaved labor to 1656 Onondaga—where French Jesuits arrived with a deed—showing how papal bulls morphed into U.S. property law and public memory. Along the way, we lift up Haudenosaunee matrilineal governance as a living counter-order, and trace how patriarchy and boarding schools targeted grandmothers, kinship, language, and law. Wampum belts, not just Jesuit Relations, anchor an archive of sovereignty that refuses erasure. If repair is more than a press release, what does it actually ask of institutions? We get into rematriation initiatives, land transfers from Catholic women religious, revenue redirection, and curricula that center Indigenous sources. We press on the hard question of Christian supremacy’s long arc—how a Christendom mindset powered both Catholic mission and Protestant nation-building—while looking for “otherwise” possibilities that history still holds: treaties imagining representation, Indigenous democracies shaping governance, and communities that never ceded who they are. Together, we consider what it would mean for institutions to confess, return, and relearn right relationship—with people, and with land, water, and air. Listen in and tell us what you think: What’s one concrete step your institution should take toward real repair? If the conversation moves you, subscribe, leave a review, and invite someone into this work with you. Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    1h 2m
  7. Defending Mother Earth from The Doctrine of Christian Discovery #NoKings

    06/30/2025

    Defending Mother Earth from The Doctrine of Christian Discovery #NoKings

    Standing on the shores of Onondaga Lake—the birthplace of democracy in North America—Haudenosaunee knowledge keepers share timeless wisdom about our relationship with Mother Earth. This powerful conversation begins with Jake Edwards reciting the Thanksgiving Address, a profound expression of gratitude that acknowledges the interconnected responsibilities of all beings. "When you look at the responsibilities that were given to us with the original instructions of humans," Edwards explains, "the details of environmental justice are all in there." The Onondaga Nation has maintained these teachings despite centuries of attempted erasure, and they offer crucial insights for our current environmental crisis. Faithkeeper Oren Lyons reminds us that the Great Tree of Peace—a thousand-year-old teaching symbolized in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Belt—represents the foundation of true democracy, one that extends rights and consideration to all living beings, not just humans. "World peace is the only solution," he states, warning that climate change is accelerating while leaders focus on war instead of survival. The conversation unfolds against the backdrop of colonial history, as participants explore how the Doctrine of Christian Discovery created legal frameworks that justified land theft and attempted to sever indigenous peoples from their connection to the earth. Now, ironically, many institutions built on these foundations are looking to indigenous knowledge for environmental healing, often without addressing their complicity in displacement. Most powerfully, the speakers offer clear direction for moving forward: "If you want to start healing," Edwards states, "you start with where it started—taking the land. So give it back." He draws direct connections between environmental restoration projects like dam removal on the Klamath River and the return of land to indigenous stewardship. Listen to this essential conversation about gratitude, responsibility, and what it truly means to live in right relationship with the earth and each other. Share these teachings widely—our collective future may depend on it. Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    2h 9m

  8. 05/21/2025

    Teaching Uncomfortable History: The Doctrine of Discovery

    Holly Rine, associate professor of history at Le Moyne College, offers a compelling perspective on teaching the Doctrine of Discovery at a Jesuit institution. With remarkable candor, she shares her own journey from unfamiliarity with this history to becoming an advocate for institutional honesty about colonization's ongoing impacts. The conversation explores how critical examination of historical texts like the Jesuit Relations reveals their propagandistic nature. What many accept as straightforward historical accounts were actually carefully crafted narratives designed to secure European funding for colonial projects. Rine encourages her students to question these sources by asking "who wrote them, for whom, and to what purpose?" This approach transforms passive learning into active critical thinking about how history shapes our present. Particularly fascinating is the discussion of Onondaga Lake as both sacred space to the Haudenosaunee and contested territory through colonization. Rine's work examines how different cultural perspectives view the lake – as either a sacred gathering place or merely as an economic resource. This dichotomy continues today with debates about development projects like Micron's semiconductor facility, drawn to Syracuse largely because of its abundant water resources. The environmental degradation of the lake stands as a physical manifestation of colonial attitudes toward land and water. The podcast reveals how Indigenous knowledge systems challenge conventional academic approaches. While Western historians rely heavily on written documents, the Haudenosaunee preserve history through oral tradition, wampum belts, and a relational understanding with the natural world. These alternative ways of recording history offer transformative perspectives on our relationship with the environment and each other – particularly relevant as we face climate change and environmental crisis. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this episode presents a timely opportunity to reassess the origins of American democracy. The Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace provided a model of democratic governance that included women and non-human beings in decision-making processes centuries before the Constitution was drafted. By acknowledging these influences and confronting uncomfortable truths about our shared history, we open possibilities for healing relationships with both the land and its original stewards. Support the show View the transcript and show notes at podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org. Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery on our site DoctrineofDiscovery.org.

    54 min
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About

The Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery podcast, hosted by Philip P. Arnold and Sandy Bigtree (Mohawk Nation), critically examines the historical and ongoing impacts of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Rooted in 15th-century papal edicts, this doctrine provided theological and legal justification for European colonialism, the seizure of Indigenous lands, and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples. The podcast explores how these principles became codified in U.S. law, from Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) to Sherrill v. Oneida (2005), and continue to underpin contemporary legal, religious, and corporate frameworks. Featuring discussions with scholars, legal experts, and Indigenous leaders, the series sheds light on how this doctrine fuels environmental destruction, economic exploitation, and cultural genocide while also highlighting Indigenous resistance and calls for justice, land restoration, and the repudiation of these colonial structures. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en. Learn more: podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org.

Information

  • Creator
    The Doctrine of Discovery Project
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast presented by Indigenous Values Initiative and American Indian Law Alliance
  • Show Website
    Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery

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