Steven Newcomb, Shawnee-Lenape Scholar and Author: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Unmasking the Domination Code

This was an eye-opening conversation with Shawnee-Lenape Scholar and Author Steven T. Newcomb whose work examines Christendom’s legacy of domination and dehumanization that has resulted in the near destruction of thousands of years of spiritual and ecological wisdom developed by indigenous peoples and nations.

 

We discussed how much of the history and culture of original nations and peoples was systematically smothered and ultimately lost; how cutting a people off from their traditional teachings is a form of domination and dehumanization; how Old Testament religious concepts form a significant part of the backdrop of federal Indian law and policy; cognitive theory and what it has to do with the history of the United States and federal Indian law; how the American Enterprise (i.e. Empire) is predicated on the assumption of the right of domination at its root; the significance of the Johnson & Graham's Lessee vs. M'Intosh SCOTUS case of 1823 - "the cornerstone of property law in the U.S."; how the claim of the right of domination has become the organizing principle of the planet and much more.

 

Steven Newcomb has been studying and writing about U.S. federal Indian law and policy since the early 1980s, particularly the application of international law to Indigenous nations and peoples. Mr. Newcomb is the Director of the Indigenous Law Institute, the author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, and the co-producer of the documentary “The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code.” Mr. Newcomb has worked on Indigenous Peoples issues at the United Nations for twenty years. His work has been published by Wiley-Blackwell of Oxford, NYU School of Law, Fulcrum Publishing, UCLA School of Law, and the Griffith School of Law in Australia. In May 2016, Mr. Newcomb met Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square and Archbishop Tomasi at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace regarding the papal bulls of the fifteenth century.

 

Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. 

 

www.amazon.com/Pagans-Promised-Land-Christian-Discovery/dp/1555916422

 

vimeo.com/ondemand/dominationcode

 

originalfreenations.com

 

www.researchgate.net/publication/368661824_Redthought_Event_200_Years_Since_the_Origin_of_Federal_Indian_Law

 

www.democracygroup.org/shows/talkin-politics-religion

 

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