Steve Newcomb Talks With Peter d'Errico
Steve Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) wrote the seminal book on the doctrine of Christian Discovery, Pagans in the Promised Land
In this video, my friend and colleague Steve Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) and I continue a decades-long conversation about Indigenous Peoples.
Our discussion includes the following topics and more:
Oyate Woyaka, the latest film project Steve has worked on, now showing on PBS: the story of Lakota language history, loss, and revitalization.
The claim of a “right of domination” inherent in US federal anti-Indian law since its founding in Johnson v. McIntosh
The foundation of legalized domination in 15th century papal bulls and similar “Christian Discovery” documents
How English terminology obscures domination behind common words
The relation of race and gender critiques to a theory of domination
How domination extends beyond human relations to the entire natural world
Oyate Woyaka, the latest film project Steve has worked on, is now showing on PBS.
Steve’s book, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (2008) laid bare the religious foundation of US law related to the Original Peoples of the continent.
I wrote the Foreword to Pagans, available on my Substack.
In 2014, Steve teamed up with Director Sheldon P. Wolfchild to produce a documentary film based on Pagans: The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code (on Vimeo).
Steve maintains a website, Original Free Nations: Cutting-Edge Research for Indigenous Peoples’ Liberation, going back to his work with the late Birgil Kills Straight, a Traditional Headman and Elder of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and the Indigenous law Institute.
Steve’s Substack is The Domination Chronicles: Observations About Life on Mother Earth and the Domination System:
Here’s my favorite photo of Steve, when Francis came out to meet him:
The video of our conversation is also available on Vimeo.
Great stuff. It is good to hear you both. I believe that the Plenary Powers Doctrine stands today as the most singular example of Domination in US law, governance and injustice. The scale of the power and the target of it and the fact that it remains so intact today AND accepted by so many of us is astounding. I suppose the same could and should be said of the Trust Doctrine; another tool of domination that far too many Native people accept.
Peter- Thanks so much for this conversation. It's got my mind whirling and I was hoping maybe we could get together off the record again to talk about Domination and it's relation to the human values , moral and mores of different cultures--Indigenous vs those who have precticed the Domination of others --often bringing together "under one roof" so to speak numberous unrelated peoples and forcing them to adhere to the Domination of a Central Auuthority, Also to change these systems would require the Doiminators to relinquish or deplete the wealth and power they seek to accomplish goals for the people--a la Flint's water crisis==where change would require spending the Dominationators riches to make change. Anyway--my is churning around language as well. If you remember, we discussed that as well in the segment we didn't;t record- and I really appreciate you proceeding on to that in this fasciating and illuminating conversation. I learned so much! Please forgive all the typos in this--I broke my glasses again and can't see what I'm typing! James