Taking of Native lands. There are many excellent videos to help us to understand how fundamental Christian doctrines and beliefs about Indigenous peoples have served as the foundation on which colonization was built – along with chattel slavery, anti-semitism, and fear of immigrants and others who are different.
Here are five excellent short YouTube videos on this subject. We strongly recommend that you take the time, if possible, to watch one or two of these videos to help understand the roots of has been done to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
- Doctrine of Discovery from Steven Newcomb (5 mins)
- Doctrine of Discovery from Haudenosaunee faithkeeper Orlen Lyons (5 mins)
- Doctrine of Discovery another somewhat longer talk on the same subject by Orlen Lyons (15 mins)
- We the People Navajo Mark Charles’ Ted Talk on how the founding documents of this country were steeped in racism concerning Native and Black peoples here – and were closely related to the Doctrine of Discovery (17 mins)
- Discovered or Stolen? Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery from the United Church of Christ (6 mins)
- European Belief in a Divine Right to Conquer, Enslave & Kill Indigenous Peoples – Rev. Kelly Gallagher (13 min)
Other more detailed videos on the subject of decolonizing faith and the taking of Native lands:
- Mother Earth’s Pandemic: Doctrine of Discovery. This is the YouTube channel of Indigenous Values Initiative and includes individual segments on all presentations at this 2020 course.
- Doctrine of Discovery from Mennonite Church (49 mins)
- Commentary by Steven Newcomb on “Doctrine of Discovery: The Domination Code” film (59 mins)
(see 400 Years: Films page for info on the full Steve Newcomb documentary film)
- Recovering Un-ceded Lands across Turtle Island by Stephanie Morningstar (7 min)
- Decolonized Ways of Growing Food by Leah Penniman (4 min)
- Mashalisque & Frances Crowe: Women & Native Land History – Doug Harris & Sarah Pirlte (2:14)
Taking of cultures. Indian boarding schools and foster care programs were often systematically used to try and extinguish Native languages, cultural practices, kinship bonds, and sense of Native identity on the principle “Kill the Indian to save the man.” (see 400 Years: Films page for info on the film “Dawnland”)
- 2017 talk by Paula Palmer on Indian Boarding Schools. (25 mins.)
- Quaker Indian Boarding Schools. Illustrated talk by Paula Palmer at Truth & Healing Conference (70 mins)
Thanksgiving. Hearing Indigenous perspectives about the holiday and why many Native people have considered this day a National Day of Mourning.
- Rethinking Thanksgiving – a conversation about Larry Spotted Crow Mann’s novel The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving – between the author and MA state senator Jo Comerford (30 mins)
Mourning Road to Thanksgiving – Mann talks about his book (3 mins) - Native Future – excerpts from 2019 National Day of Mourning (4 mins)
National Day of Mourning 2019 – all talks from this gathering
Why These Native Americans Celebrate a National Day of Mourning Each Thanksgiving HuffPost interview with UAINE organizers (5 mins) - Looking Deeply at Thanksgiving: The journey to a new Thanksgiving built on justice & right relationship – an online workshop held in November 2020 featuring 2 Wampanoag leaders & 2 non-Indigenous faith leaders active in decolonization work (60 mins)
- The Suppressed Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B) James – Wampanoag leader James was asked to deliver a speech at the 1970 Thanksgiving Day ceremony in Plymouth MA, but they refused to let him give the speech he wrote – a reading of his text (17 min)
400 Years Program – broadcast live on October 18, 2020
Full program