The Doctrine of Discovery (DoD), a 15th century legal and religious justification for the conquest of Indigenous lands and peoples, continues to hold significant influence in the state of Maine, despite its widespread repudiation during the past few decades. Efforts to remove the influence of the document have been under way for years, but a significant shift in the perspective of the public and of elected officials is required to ultimately reject the doctrine, its challengers say.
      "It's about domination," says Dwayne Tomah of Sipayik, language keeper of the Passamaquoddy Tribe who recently gave a presentation on the DoD at the Eastport Arts Center. The doctrine evokes "the ideologies, the methodologies, the archaic and barbaric laws that enabled them to carry out genocidal principles. To take power and control."
      The DoD has roots going back to the 11th century in the form of papal bulls issued by the Catholic Church. In 1493, the "Inter Caetera" papal bull was issued, giving Christian Europeans religious authority to seize the Americas and parts of Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
      The conquest and colonization of the Americas led to the demise of 90% of its Indigenous population, or about 55 million people, between 1492 and 1600. When the United States was established, it incorporated language from the DoD into its legal documents.
      In what he calls "the most important Supreme Court decision ever issued by the United States," John Dieffenbacher Krall of Old Town references Johnson v. McIntosh by way of example. In it, Chief Justice John Marshall -- being "the equivalent of George Washington of the judiciary," he says -- wrote the 1823 decision that asserts that Indigenous peoples could not own land, only live on it. The language in the decision is "just so shocking and unbelievable" that Dieffenbacher Krall sometimes quotes it during sermons. He is the executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance and the former chair of the Episcopal Committee on Indian Relations, though his comments were made as a Maine resident rather than in an official capacity.
      In Maine, the legacy of the DoD is particularly robust on account of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA) and the Maine Implementing Act (MIA) that outlined how MICSA should be enforced. While most federal tribes gained the ability to manage their own affairs in the 1970s, the tribes in Maine did not. Section 6204 of the MIA outlines that "unless otherwise delineated the state of Maine controls affairs and its legal system is supreme," Dieffenbacher Krall says. "That just so smacks of the world view of the doctrine of Christian discovery and domination, where certain Christians are supreme and everyone else is lower on the human scale."
      As a result of MICSA and MIA, Maine tribes are economically far behind their counterparts in other states, and tribal residents have much less access to economic opportunity. At Sipayik, the average income of a tribal resident is just $13,741, while child poverty rate is at 58%. At Motahkomikuk, the average income is $14,435 and child poverty is at 40%. Outside of the reservations, by contrast, Washington County residents have an average income of $29,000 with the child poverty rate being 22.5%.
      If the language in MICSA and MIA were revoked and the tribes were granted sovereignty, "communities around and throughout the state of Maine will also prosper," Dieffenbacher Krall says. "We only hurt ourselves with the oppression of Wabanaki nations with all these restrictive laws." A 2022 report from Harvard found that as much as $330 million would be generated in the state if the tribes were allowed to take advantage of congressional benefits, with thousands of mostly non native jobs created directly and indirectly.
      "The DoD permeates law and the political systems, institutions -- it's all around us," Dieffenbacher Krall says. "Sometimes, like a lot of systemic things, it's so manifest and present it becomes kind of invisible because it's so deeply entwined in our lives. We need to become conscious of it, we need to name it, and we need to firmly and unequivocally declare this is wrong." In 2006, Dieffenbacher Krall helped to spark a worldwide movement when preaching on the Sunday before what was then Columbus Day. He challenged his church, the Episcopal Diocese of Maine and the entire Episcopal Church, to repudiate the DoD. The following year, the diocese of Maine did exactly that, followed by the diocese of Central New York in 2008 and then the entire Episcopal Church in 2009. It was the first major religion in the world to repudiate the doctrine. Since then, a number of faith communities have followed, including the Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalists, the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church.
      Raising awareness about the issue is important, Tomah says. "It's time for the world to hear the historical truths. It's really important to be able to have the world hear this, because it's happening everywhere. It's unfolding in the Middle East -- the same principles."
      There has been progress in policy changes in Maine as the public becomes educated, including the enactment of a 2024 bill that allows tribes to hold criminal proceedings in some cases. Ultimately, the goal is simple. "End the domination to our relations," Tomah says. "A lot of the language in Maine is around reconciliation. We don't need reconciliation. What we need is decolonization."
      Asked what that would look like, Tomah says, "Taking care of our mother and each other. Changing the mindset. Changing the dominant systems. Changing archaic laws."
      For further reading on the DoD, Tomah recommends Indigenous author Steven Newcomb's Pagans in the Promised Land, along with the website Originalfreenations.com.