Summary: The15-minute slideshow/video delves into the largely unknown roots of injustice on this continent – the Doctrine of Discovery. We highlight the Dubuque City Council’s Proclamation of Indigenous Day in 2025 and then go on to explore what the Doctrine of Discovery is and how it has been enshrined in US property law and the minds of European settlers. The presentation ends with tangible ideas to further explore the Doctrine and to engage ways to continue learning as well as repudiate the Doctrine in action. It is hoped that the presentation will bring to consciousness this damaging attitude and continue the much needed conversation towards healing and repair of relationships with Indigenous and Black folks, as well as the land.

About: Land Justice Futures is a national organization working with Catholic Sisters to intersect conversations they’re having about their legacy and future of the lands and resources they steward with racial and ecological healing. For the past three years,  three Dubuque communities – the Presentations, Franciscans, and Sisters of Charity, BVM – have been working to learn and unlearn, to build relationships, and explore possibilities for healing and repair with Indigenous and Black communities. Land Justice Futures believes that religious communities – and the lands they love – can be a powerful part of a just, equitable, and livable future for all of us.

Resources: 

Meskwaki Pow Wow – Tama, Iowa, August 6-9

Iowa Farmers of Color – Dubuque, Iowa, August 7-8 (Multicultural Family Center) 

Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Pow Wow / Encampment – White Cloud, KS, September 18-20

Women and Water International Clean Water Summit  September 23-27 – Hayward, WI (www.spiritofthewater.org) 

Indigenous-led Great Plains Action Society – Iowa City (www.greatplainsaction.org/rematriate)

Reparations and Landback: Honor Native Land Fund (www.honornativelandfund.org)

Story of Callie Walker returning land to Black Farmers (search youtube.com for “Agrarian Trust: A Gift of Land Justice”)

Reading:

Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery Leah Penniman, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

Tim Perron, America Magazine, “Explainer: ‘The Doctrine of Discovery’ and how the Catholic Church may officially reject it

Website: https://www.landjusticefutures.org

Location: National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium