It is with trepidation that I write this article. I know it will cause anguish with many people, but this issue must be addressed. This country’s first sin, its first horror show was not directed toward Africans whether free or slaves, but the irreprehensible actions of this country is the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous. With that said, American has failed, some will say intentionally failed, others will say purposely failed when it comes to the Indigenous.
First, let’s examine the Church and its missionaries. Since the first European set foot on this continent, their intent was to take that which was not theirs to take and destroy anyone who stood in their way. The Catholic Church sent missionaries to convert the Merciless Savage Indians from their multi-millennial long beliefs in the Creator God to their racist dogma promoting a God on a cross. The Catholic Church brought forth on this continent the ideals of the Doctrine of Discovery which allowed for the taking of lands and the enslaving or killing of all non-white, non-Christians living on the lands. These non-white, non-Christians were sub-human and had no mental capabilities of knowing God. The protestants were as biased as or even worse to the Indians.
Second, let’s examine the dogma used to justify the betrayal of Christianity. The Europeans came portraying the same God on a cross, all the time purporting to love the souls of the Indians, but needing to kill the Indian in the Indian to bring forth Christian civilization to the Indians. The Doctrine of Discovery endorsed the taking of the land and possessions of all non-white, non-Christian inhabitants of any land deemed to be “discovered” in the name of the King of a Christian European country and Pope of the Catholic Church. This Doctrine of Discovery formed the basis of European dealings, whether Catholic or protestant, with the Indigenous who had lived on this continent for at least 13 millennia according to the archaeological record.
This land was not the land of the Europeans, it was the land of the Indigenous. The Kings of Spain and France under the Doctrine of Discovery divided up the American continent west of the ridge of the Appalachians to the Pacific Ocean including modern Canada and Mexico. The King of England laid claim to the eastern seaboard of the Continent westward to the ridge of the Appalachians. Make no mistakes, the tens of millions of Indigenous on this continent had no chance of protecting themselves from these three Superpowers of the World.
It is preposterous to think for one second that the Spanish, French, or English had claims to the lands on this continent. The God that they purported to worship and honor forbid, even detested their actions. The European God detested the moving of boundary markers as was evidenced in their Old Testament. The European God’s commandments from the Old Testament forbid, killing, stealing, lying, and coveting your neighbor’s wife, lands, and animals. The European God detested rebellion, in the Old Testament and New Testament it is called witchcraft which is to be punished with death.
The Europeans created a Dogma in the Doctrine of Discovery which enabled them to bypass the laws of the European God and put their own in place hoping their God would not pay attention. They entitled themselves with the rights to kill, steal, move boundary markers, and rebel against their God if it was done so in the name of their King and/or their Pope. These types of actions and behaviors have been taking place on this continent since the early 1,500s with no ending of these actions or beliefs in sight.
The dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines racism as being a command from God. The dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines the moving of boundary markers and the stealing of lands as being a command from God. The dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines murder of non-white non-Christians as being a command from God. The dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines lying and not telling the truth as being a command from God. The dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines coveting and taking your neighbor’s wife, lands, and animals as being a command from God. Finally, the dogma of the Doctrine of Discovery itself enshrines rebellion as being a command from God.
Can you imagine the missionaries contorting scripture to justify the actions of the Europeans to the Indigenous or even their benefactors back on the European Continent? How can these actions and behaviors be justified or even accepted? How can the European God on a cross allow these behaviors to be done in his name? How can the hundreds of thousands of “Christian” churches in America not repent and make restitution for what their churches and ancestors did to the Indigenous?
How can this country continue to allow these dogmas to be perpetuated against the Indigenous? How can this country continue to enshrine these dogmas against the millions of descendants of the Indigenous Treaty Tribes? This country created, broke, and then trashed hundreds of Treaties with Indigenous Tribes only to take their lands and move their ancient boundary markers. This country committed genocide and ethnic cleansing against most if not all of the Indigenous Tribes and continues these same policies today.
Time has come for this country to confess its actions, repent of its actions, and restore to the Indigenous Tribes that which was taken from them either by returning all of their lands, or paying them for taking their lands at its current fair market value. This would includle all improvements made to those lands, all natural resources, all mineral rights above and below the land inclusive of timber rights that has been taken and is continuing to be stolen to this very day, as well as all water rights including the river and creek beds and the land under them. Even then it will never be enough to account for the millions of Indigenous who died at the hands of the missionaries, militias, military, magistrates, laws, and vigilantes. It will never be enough to account for the hundreds of thousands of children taken from their Indigenous homes to be raised by white, Christian parents or sold into slavery. It will never be enough to account for the hundreds of thousands of women taken as “wives” who were forced to become sex slaves.