My Decades-long Inquiry Into the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination

“My Decades long Inquiry Into the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination,” an Outcome archive entry by Steven T. Newcomb. The entry belongs to the jcrt collection and connects readers to scholarship, public history, and organizing around the Doctrine of Discovery, Christian domination, Indigenous sovereignty, law, religion, land, memory, and accountability.

In brief, it addresses Steven Newcomb reflects on decades studying Christian Discovery, showing how law and language normalized domination over Native nations for centuries.. For readers arriving from the main Doctrine of Discovery site, this post functions as a pointer rather than a replacement for the full Outcome record. The canonical page preserves the complete context, metadata, author information, citation links, media, and neighboring materials in the archive.

The source text highlights terms and contexts including The author Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) reflects on his lifelong study of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination, tracing its origins, legal codifications, and enduring impact on Native nations. Motivated by reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee at age fifteen, Newcomb situates his inquiry within his family history, including Shawnee and Delaware ancestry and his grandparents’ experiences in U.S. Indian boarding schools designed to eradicate Native languages and culture. Newcomb examines the 1493 papal bull Inter Caetera , which sanctioned European Christian domination over non Christian peoples, and the 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh , which codified the legal principle that “discovery” granted title and authority. Read the canonical Outcome page for the complete entry.

Canonical link: https://outcome.doctrineofdiscovery.org/jcrt/issue2/newcomb/

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