Paul Magid – The Doctrine of Discovery

Paul Magid is co-founder of the Flying Karamazov Brothers and the New Old Time Chautauqua. He is a writer, juggler, musician, organizer, and historian. Through Chautauqua he has been working with Native Nations since 1982. He specializes in the study of the history of and the laws derived from the Doctrine of Discovery,

Washington
USA

Paul Magid has been studying this stuff for decades, and could probably write the curriculum for a whole new type of history class – one with a completely different lens – that tells the story of domination by force behind much of what we know as civilization. The “Doctrine of Discovery” is the legal basis behind eminent domain by the US Government over lands once controlled by free Nations of Native Americans. Except for recently-set precedents by congress and the courts, Natives are legally considered wards of the state and subject to the control of the US government, and are not legally in ownership of their own land. This doctrine, based on decisions made by popes over 500 years ago, dehumanized natives on their own land and justified conquest and murder at that point – it continues to be upheld as the legal basis behind the Federal Government’s control over the lands that constitute the United States. As long as it stands unmodified, it will continue to affect the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the natural and ecosystem features of these lands and waters.