The Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast

In episode #7, we discussed the Indian Child Welfare Acts or ICWA, which is a major piece of civil rights legislation for Native Americans that has come under threat in the courts. This important law, passed in 1978, strengthened the legal rights of Indigenous families and specified that when Native children are removed from the care of their families, they will be placed in the care of extended f...

In round two of this episode, Sarah answers more listener questions, including: I was in a meeting where someone used the phrase “off the rez,” and I noticed that you (Sarah) as the only Native person in the meeting were actually less offended by this phrase than other folks were. Can you say more about your response? How do white people know which "side" to take when Indigenous communities are di...

In this recurring episode, Sarah answers questions from listeners. Questions include: What is the deal about dressing up like and Indian? Why is that offensive? What do Native people think about Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc.? Many white settlers look to Indigenous People for ideas about how to connect with the land and live more sustainably. But Indigenous people have been so assimilated –...

In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about Sarah’s “100-year vision” for the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition. Sarah will begin as the full-time Executive Director of the Coalition on July 1. To contribute to Sarah’s salary campaign, please go here ( https://dofdmenno.org/salary-campaign/ ). Every dollar you donate will be matched by Sheri’s congregation, First Mennonite Church of...

It’s almost summer and many of us will be traveling to the U.S.’s national parks for vacation and recreation. In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about how the formation of our national parks, the conservation movement that inspired their formation, and colonization have gone hand in hand. They also talk about how conservation could be decolonized. For more information: Link to The Atlantic arti...

In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about Sarah’s experience of serving as chair of the Washington State Redistricting Commission and the impact of that redistricting process on Native people.

In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about why renewable energy and electric cars and green growth won’t save us – and how these things are linked to the same extractive, dominating worldview of the Doctrine of Discovery. For more information: Link to Jason Hickel’s book Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World - https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more Link to Jason Hickel’s article, “Degr...

In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk with activist, author and Dine leader Mark Charles, who wrote Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery with co-author Soong-Chan Rah. For two years, Mark led an Indigenous and settler church in Denver before moving to live on the Navajo reservation with his family for 11 years. While on the reservation, Mark became expos...

In this episode Sarah and Sheri talk about how Indigenous cosmologies have helped form Sarah's Christian faith and how we both have adopted a creation-centered approach to being an Anabaptist Christian.

Sarah and Sheri talk with Katerina Friesen. Katerina was the lead editor for an educational resource called “Stories of Repair” that provides case studies on how individuals and communities have engaged in restorative justice in response to the Doctrine of Discovery DofD). For anyone who has ever asked “But what do I do?” when hearing about the structural oppression caused by the DoD, this podcast...

In case the links from the previous episode didn't work here they are one more time. Sources: Chapter 7 of Sarah’s book This Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. As always, for more information please consult [dofdmenno.org](dofdmenno.org) and Sarah’s book. To make a one-time donation to the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition to fund a full-time...

In this episode, Sarah pulls back the curtain to reveal how colonization is continuing -- legally -- through economic development projects (including “sustainable” development), international aid and through our own financial investments. We also discuss what people of faith can do about this. Sources: Chapter 7 of Sarah’s book This Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of...

Have you ever had a question you wanted to ask a Native American but were too embarrassed to ask? In this recurring episode, Sarah answers your questions. In this episode, questions including: What do you think about the movie Pocahontas? If a child will be adopted out to a loving family, why doesn’t it matter if the family isn’t Native? Aren't Native Americans immigrants also? They moved around a...

Have you ever had a question you wanted to ask a Native American but were too embarrassed to ask? In this recurring episode, Sarah answers your questions. In this episode, questions include: Do Native calls for land return mean that I have to give up my home? Doesn’t federal aid form an unhealthy dependency between the government and Indians? Are casinos bad or good? A friend has asked me to resis...

Sarah shares with Sheri about her family's home and their work to be good stewards of the land through conservation and collaboration with the Yakama Nation. It has been a complicated process and they have found it hard because of policies directly tied to the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a major piece of civil rights legislation for the Native American community, comparable to Brown vs. Board of Education for African-Americans. But in October 2018, a federal court in Texas struck down ICWA. This important law, passed in 1978, strengthened the legal rights of Indigenous families and specified that when Native children are removed from the care...

Sheri talks about how she “discovered” the Doctrine of Discovery and how her family’s history is entwined with the history — and present reality — of colonization. She unpacks the famous “Hochstetler Indian Massacre” story that is well-known in Amish and Mennonite communities. Both Sarah and Sheri address “What is settler colonialism”? Links to sources for this episode: Website of the Jacob Hochst...

Sarah and Sheri continue the discussion of an Indigenous cosmology versus the Western worldview and how that impacts our Christian faith and practice.

Sarah and Sheri talk about Indigenous cosmology and how it differs from the Western worldview in ways that have led directly to our dominant culture having a distorted relationship with nature, with creation, and with the processes of life. Sarah constructs an Indigenous theology of creation based on Scripture. We talk about the difference between individual and structural sin, as taught by the He...

Sarah and Sheri continue to explore how Sarah discovered the Doctrine of Discovery and its impact on her life. Sarah tells the story about how she ended up working with the Indigenous Wayana people from the Guyana Shield in South America, who were being poisoned by mercury from gold mining and had no legal recourse to end this, due to the Doctrine of Discovery. She also tells the story of her fath...

During this episode, Sarah and Sheri explore how Sarah “discovered” the Doctrine of Discovery and its traumatic impact on her life and on the lives of other Indigenous people. They talk about how this trauma didn’t just happen but was intentionally planned by the U.S. government through different eras of federal Indian policy that systematically dispossessed Native people of their land.

In this introduction episode hosts Sheri and Sarah share about themselves, their faith, their friendship and why they continue to work at dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. Stay tuned every other week for new episodes.