“Doctrine of Discovery” Film Screening

The Environmental Justice team is sponsoring a screening of the documentary film “Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code” on Sunday, Feb. 18, in the Cummins Room. Refreshments will be provided.

The film helps to unravel the connection between Christendom’s principle of discovery and the laws still being upheld in the U.S. and Canada. The film begins by examining a papal document issued in 1452. Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Romanus Pontifex declaring war against all non-Christians and declaring them enemies of the Church. This edict sanctioned the conquest, colonization and exploitation of non-Christian peoples and their territories.

We will be joined by Mitch Walking Elk, a survivor of forced Boarding School who now works as a teacher of traditional culture and religious ceremony at the GAP School in St Paul. Mitch is currently involved in a campaign to gain an audience with the Pope for himself and a contingency of his students, the ‘Indigenous Youth Mentoring Society,’ to discuss renouncing the Doctrine.