A Preface to Challenging the Justifications of Domination Through Religion: “We Were Planting Corn, and They Were Planting Crosses”

Preface to a special issue examining Christian Discovery’s role in white supremacy, law, and education, with decolonial paths grounded in Indigenous justice.

Introduction

Introduction to a global volume on Christian Discovery, linking law, religion, and pedagogy, with Indigenous sovereignty and decolonial justice today.

Christian Control of Women and Mother Earth: The Doctrine of Discovery and the Doctrine of Male Domination

Wagner links church patriarchy and the Doctrine of Discovery to colonial violence, calling for Indigenous rematriation to restore women and the Earth.

Charting the Doctrine in the Colonial Archive: Papal Bulls and the Translation of the ‘Discovery’ Purpose

Modrow shows how papal bulls transformed crusade theology into global colonial strategy, legitimizing Indigenous dispossession and imperial expansion.

Using the Doctrine of Discovery to Increase Shared Language and Conceptual Frameworks Between Black and Indigenous Feminist Organizing

Nahar argues Doctrine of Discovery can build shared language between Black and Indigenous feminisms, strengthening solidarity against settler colonial power.

The Medieval Origins of Religious White Supremacy: English Imperialism, Crusade Defeats, and the Doctrine of Discovery

Callan traces how medieval English myths, crusade defeat, and Irish colonization shaped Christian white supremacy and fed the global Doctrine of Discovery.

The Chosen People at Grouse Mountain

Felese challenges conquest-based land values and shows Indigenous relational worldviews offer life-affirming alternatives to extraction and alienation

“Engineering Marvel”: Towards Resisting the Affective Politics of Erie Canal Heritage

Nagle critiques Erie Canal heritage marketing, showing how engineered marvel obscures Haudenosaunee dispossession and calls settlers to affective resistance.

Deconstructing the Erie Canal: Three Lessons for its Next Century

In this bicentennial reflection on the Erie Canal, Renee Barry examines how celebratory public histories mask the canal's foundation in settler colonial violence on unceded Haudenosaunee land. Drawing on archival research, heritage tourism analysis, and museum narratives, the essay deconstructs myths of progress, civilization, and national destiny embedded in iconic commemorations such as the Wedding of the Waters. Barry argues that these narratives normalize environmental damage, erase Indigenous sovereignty, and recast genocidal dispossession as American achievement. The article links canal ideology to Christian dominance, European expansion, and the legal legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, while also tracing how revivalist and reform movements reproduced similar hierarchies. Blending critical history with self-reflection, Barry calls for a different future in which Erie Canal memory is reoriented around Indigenous leadership, sacred relationships to place, and accountable ecological repair rather than triumphalist nostalgia. She urges institutions, educators, and visitors to confront inherited narratives and support decolonial stewardship in practice.

Silencing the Doctrine of Discovery – The Brazilian Process: Accidental Discoveries, Secret Manuscripts, Imaginary Lines and Myths

Alencar traces how the Doctrine of Discovery shaped Brazil through church-backed silence, racial myths, and colonial violence, urging decolonial accountability.