Restorative Action Opportunity

Attend a Showing of The Doctrine

June 17 at 7 p.m. at the Riverview Theater

The Doctrine, a documentary film by Gwendolen Cates, follows a group of Indigenous teenagers, members of the Indigenous Ceremonial Mentoring Society founded in the Twin Cities by longtime activist and educator Mitch Walking Elk, who in 2018 requested a meeting at the Vatican, and became the first Indigenous youth to meet with Vatican officials about the Doctrine and advocate for the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Doctrine of Discovery refers to 15th-century Vatican decrees that authorized conquest and colonization, codified racism and slavery, and were later adopted as international law, including in the United States. During the “Age of Exploration,” popes granted Spanish and Portuguese monarchs the right to seize lands not owned by other European Christian monarchs. These papal bulls also codified racism and slavery. Other European countries followed suit, and in 1823 the United States Supreme Court incorporated the Doctrine into law. Yet this is no relic of history. The Supreme Court has cited the 1823 Johnson v. McIntosh case as recently as 2005 to overturn a tribal sovereignty claim upheld by lower courts, making it both relevant and necessary to explore the Doctrine's ongoing impact in the 21st century.