Civilization and personhood are the intellectual bulwarks for the justification of colonization. The colonizer assumes they are made in the image of their God while spreading the message of conquest, civilization and Christianity.
The Doctrine of Discovery, a set of 15th-century papal bulls, provides the theological and legal framework for Christian domination. It communicates that “explorers” who “discover” lands not occupied by Christians can view them as “terra nullis”–a territory without a master–and claim them for their sovereign.
Despite calls by Episcopalians, Friends (Quakers), Methodists, and the World Council of Churches for the doctrine to be formally renounced, the Vatican has refused to do so, saying it is ancient history.
But it is living history. It is a framework that still operates and underpins American land law that systematically removed Indigenous peoples from their homes. It has been promulgated most recently in the comments and actions of the current and former Hanadagá•yas, Donald Trump.
All U.S. presidents are referred to as “Hanadagá•yas” or “destroyers of villages” in the Onondaga Nation. This practice has existed since George Washington sent soldiers to destroy Onondaga villages and burn their fields when they refused to take sides in the American Revolution. The Onondaga viewed the war as a fight between a father and a son.
Trump’s dehumanizing language about immigrants to this country–referring to them as vermin, rapists, criminals, drug dealers, and worse–reflect the continuing influence of white, Christian supremacy at the core of the Doctrine that stains the United States.
States like Arizona and most egregiously, Texas have legislated state police to stop people “suspected” of being undocumented immigrants. That is little more than legalizing random stops of brown people in states with large populations of Mexican Americans who have been here for generations.
Indigenous people know something about the link between immigration and terrorism. This connection has occurred at least since 1492, when the first Europeans arrived in Abya Yala, or Turtle Island, as the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous peoples call North America. The Europeans launched a campaign of violent dispossession and genocide that continues to this day.
They also know the immigration debate is really about white supremacy and the fear that white Americans will soon be a minority in a country whose founding credo of equal rights has never come close to being realized.
The Americans claim to respect the role the Haudenosaunee played in the formation of the United States. They are recognized in a congressional resolution that shows the federal structure of the United States is based in part on the confederacy, which joined together five Indigenous Nations 1,000 years ago.
But the Americans forgot a few things, like women’s rights and Mother Earth. The very constitution that Americans claim to treasure still contains the language under which enslaved Africans were only counted as three-fifths of a person.
Hanadagá•yas Trump has been open about how he views Black, Indigenous, LatinX and all marginalized peoples as less than human. He now seeks to deny the humanity of those crossing imposed settler colonial borders.
Those crossing the imposed border are humans with full personhood who should be treated with kindness, dignity, love and respect. Their humanity and dignity are inherent and natural. No one can reduce them to less of a person–not a constitution or a Hanadagá•yas.
As poet Warsan Shire reminds us :
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city
running as well.
People fleeing war, famine, and genocide should never be demonized or villainized. Palestinian and Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha writes, “Please stop the carnage. Stop the inhumanity. Be human again.”
His words remind us that demonizing and vilifying others is not the sole provenance of one political party. He asks us to consider what it means to be human and what is really inhumane.
Indigenous peoples being forcibly dislocated from their homes are the victims of domination and harm. They require love and compassion.
One cannot drop both food and bombs. Likewise, exacting collective punishment on a populace in the name of civilization is cruelty.
To be clear, kidnapping, sexual assault and violence are never justified. Neither is the denial of sovereignty and the right to self-determination.
As I have learned from Haudenosaunee Confederacy leaders like Tadodaho Sid Hill, humanity would do well to heed the message of the Peacemaker who taught that there are protocols for resolving conflict and strife peacefully. There are proper ways to welcome strangers and sojourners into your home.
One such way is seen in the Edge of The Woods Ceremony. In these protocols, there is no mention of razor wire buried in rivers, shootings, drownings, bombings, the fractional reduction of anyone’s personhood, nor vilifying another’s culture as less civilized. Mosab’s plea, “Be human again,” resounds in my ears.
Today, as the world’s leaders continue to operate under what Shawnee/Lenape scholar Steven T. Newcomb has called the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and Domination, let us return to the powerful message of the Peacemaker, Jikonhsaseh, and Handsome Lake. These three Haudenosaunee leaders taught us how to be human beings, living in proper relationships with their Creator, the natural world and one another.
We must cease violence and war to become human beings. We continue to call for ceasefires, peace, and the dismantling of the frameworks of domination with their arcane concepts of civilizational hierarchies and divisible personhood.
International research associate and operations manager for the American Indian Law Alliance (aila.ngo). He holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Syracuse University.
