We walked to honour the missing and murdered Indigenous Women on Oct 4.
As I rode and walked with the march, I put some thoughts together. Where did the ugliness and violence come from?
The Doctrine of Discovery was issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452. It came in response to the need for an international tenet regarding “empty” lands being “discovered” by Christian European nations. At a time when ships had become seaworthy enough to leave the Mediterranean Sea — or beyond the English Channel into the much more dangerous Atlantic Ocean — European states were on a competitive mission to explore the extent of the world, find new lands to claim as extensions of their countries and to instill Christianity to the occupants.
Having found the lands extensively occupied, in May 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the Papal bull known as inter Caetera that provided Portugal and Spain the religious backing to effect the enslavement or murders of any person resisting conversion to Christianity in the Americas and Africa, including women and their children. In typical Euro-Centric style, England and France adopted the principles of the doctrine and applied them in countries they claimed as their own.
It was not long after the Papal permission to enslave or murder the original inhabitants of the Americas and Africa came into effect that men, women and children were met with violence.
The British, took a more gentle approach. They handed out blankets to the cold and starving refugees loaded with smallpox.
In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV issued the Papal bull Immensa Pastorum Principis, reversing the enslavement of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and other countries.
The new United States ignored all Papal bulls and the Indian Frontier Wars raged in the US from 1609 to 1924. Millions of Indigenous people died. Canada also had its share of wars with its own Indigenous peoples.
The British and Canadian governments signed treaties across Canada with tribal people. Treaties can only be signed by international nations. The Indigenous tribes were noted for their astuteness in negotiations. Land selections were made that provided access in and out of the reserve, access to water and hunting grounds, education and freedoms. Yet what did the British and Canadian governments do with the treaties? The government cynically passed the first Indian Act in 1867 that created reserves and laws limiting the mobility of people off-reserve without consent of the “Indian agent” assigned to the region. Starvation was rampant at the time as reserve supply shipments were delayed. Reserves became known as “open sky prisons.”
Strangely, F.W. de Klerk, president of South Africa, noted Canada’s “peaceful” handling of the Indigenous population and requested assistance to set up systems to control his country’s Black population. The result, based upon the reserve system, is known as apartheid.
Today, Indigenous groups have asked/demanded the Papal decree of the Doctrine of Discovery be revoked and replaced with a decree that apologizes for the sins of the church and denounces the violence upon those harmed.
The Metis and non-status people had no power and could not live on reserves or in municipalities. They were forced to forage on federal land allotments near federal highways or train tracks. Provincial and municipal governments ignored the suffering of these people. Today, the Metis are recognized as a legal entity with powers of negotiation.
Nowadays, land claim agreements with self-government provisions come into effect once negotiated, providing the recipients with certainty of their legal standing in Canada and a greater sense of security and safety to survive.
Yet systems continue to exist putting children and grown women at risk.
In the past, stealing Indigenous children from their parents to send them to residential schools was common, whereas now abuse within the foster care system is rampant. Police and social workers have been present to apprehend an Indigenous child from a maternity bed. Today, the number of Indigenous children in care far outnumber the children ever attending the residential school system.
Still, we march for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and many of us acknowledge potential murderous situations we or our friends found themselves, yet surviving, to honour those who did not.
Apparently, the Doctrine of Discovery and other revoked Papal edicts still survives in the minds of some people.