In 1455 Pope Nicholas V issued to the King of Portugal the bull Romanus Pontifex, sanctioning and promoting the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories. This became the Doctrine of Discovery that is amazingly still enforced today and enshrined in US Federal law. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz explains the doctrine in this Part One of Three programs. This program is based on a talk she gave at the Lannan Foundeation.
The Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, apart from awarding grants, presents speakers of extraordinary intellect and passion – among them just in 2017 Terry Tempest Williams, Glen Greenwald, Arundhati Roy, Óscar Martínez and Marlon James. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz spoke on October 11, 2017. You may remember her from a TUC Radio program on the release of her ground breaking book: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.
She was introduced by Nick Estes. He is member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, and historian and doctoral candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico.
Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz has been part of the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades, working on sovereignty and land rights. She is Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at California State University, East Bay.
Thanks to the Lannan Foundation for permission to use the audio from the video they produced of the 1 1/2 hr event. You can watch the film at their web site https://lannan.org/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)
