Combating White Racism Against Indigenous Peoples

By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

I am a Christian activist who is spearheading the local, national and international movement to revert the faulty-translation and profane name of Minnesota's "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota Indian name Wakan, which translated means Spirit or Great Spirit.

I am also try to change 13 other derogatory geographic site names that are offensive to American Indians. After MN Representative Mike Jaros received my draft bill to change the name of the "Rum River" as well as 13 other MN geographic site names that are offensive to American Indians, he slightly edited it and then with the consent of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council he introduced it to the MN legislature.

This geographic site name-changing mission of mine is a part of my work to greatly transform Christianity by eliminating white racism in it.

Jerry Mander is an internationally renowned indigenous peoples rights activist. He is the Founder and Director of International Forum On Globalization (IFG), an organization that represents 60 organizations in 25 countries. He is also credited with co-editing a IFG book with Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In his book The Absence Of The Sacred Mander writes:

"Our assumption of superiority does not come to us by accident. We have been trained in it. It is soaked into the fabric of every Western religion, economic system, and technology. Judeo-Christian religions are a model of hierarchical structure: one God above all, certain humans above other humans, and humans over nature. Political and economic systems are similarly arranged: organized along rigid hierarchical lines, all of nature's resources [including 'other humans'] are regarded only in terms of how they serve the one god, the god of growth and expansion. In this way, all of these systems are *missionary*; they embrace dominance. They are the creators and the enforcers of our beliefs. We live inside these forms, we are imbued with them and they justify our behaviors. In our turn, we believe in their viability and superiority [as systems] largely because they prove effective: they gain [us] power.

Gary R. Howard, the Founder and President of the REACH Center for Multicultural Education, has developed collections of curriculum materials which are being used internationally. He is frequently asked to deliver keynote addresses at regional and national conferences. He wrote:

"Most of our work in race relations and workforce diversity in the United States has emphasized the particular cultural experiences and perspectives of black, Asian, Hispanic and American Indian groups. These, after all, are the people who have been marginalized by the weight of European American dominance. With the shifting tide of population in the United States, however, there is now a need to take a closer look at the unique and changing role of white Americans. Attention to whites' role in multicultural education is very recent, and the focus on white identity development in multicultural education signals a shift away from equity pedagogy."

Professor Christine Sleeter is a multicultural educator, who lectures nationally and internationally. She won the National Association for Multicultural Education Research Award. She wrote:

"The importance of multicultural education is a struggle against white racism, rather than multiculturalism as a way to appreciate diversity. Both historically and in contemporary society, the relationships between racial and ethnic groups in this country are framed within a context of unequal power. People of European descent generally assume the power to claim the land, claim the resources, claim the language. They even claim the right to frame the culture and identity of who we are as Americans. That has been the case ever since Columbus landed on the North American continent."

The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is combating white racism, and on this topic it teaches:

(1.)"In spite of the first two World Conferences to Combat Racism and their calls that Indigenous Peoples have a right to their lands and natural resources that must be protected, Indigenous Peoples continue to lose their lands at an alarming rate, seemingly a continuation of the 'Conquest' of the Americas."

(2.)"Ever since Pope Alexander VI's 1493 Papal Bull "Inter Caetera", calling for the subjugation of the Americas' "barbarous nations" and their lands, first colonial and then successor States have forcibly and violently destroyed Indigenous Peoples. To this day, the racial discrimination and cultural denigration established by Pope Alexander VI are engraved in the mentality of the Americas and continue to underlie the rational for racial discrimination against Indigenous Peoples. The religious imperatives of conversion and annihilation have been replaced by assimilation and "development " as the most desirable end for Indigenous Peoples. The State, economic elites and trans-national corporations have replaced the Spanish and Portuguese kings and Colonists as the beneficiaries of Indigenous lands and resources. "Reference: (1.)

Mililani Trask is an indigenous expert to the United Nations. She wrote: "Globalization is the new form of economic colonization. There is racism here, there surely is.

An IFG - Indigenous Peoples and Globalization Project - statement declares:

"This project aims to examine and publicize the multiple impacts of the globalization process on the most marginalized of all populations, native peoples. Today, millions of native people still live traditional lifestyles, each with a distinct culture, language, knowledge base, identity, and view of the cosmos. The impact of globalization is strongest on these populations perhaps more than any other because these communities have no voice and are therefore easily swept aside by the invisible hand of the market and its proponents. Globalization not only discounts native peoples, it is driving them closer and more rapidly toward extinction."

Note: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the Chair of this IFG project as well as Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue (UNPFII). The UNPFII has given its support for my effort to change the profane Rum River name, a faulty translation name that desecrates the sacred Dakota Indian name Wakan.

National and international leaders of multicultural education, the leaders of the International Forum On Globalization, and the International Indian Treaty Council seem to be on the same wave length when it comes to their campaigns to eliminate white-racism.

In addition to my Christian (Roman Catholic) social and political activist campaign to replace twenty six of Minnesota's white racist geographic site names that are offensive to the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, I am also promoting my own campaign to eliminate white racism. A campaign that is similar to that of internationally renowned multicultural educators, leaders of the IFG and the International Indian Treaty Council. My Web site (2.)

Steve Russell (Cherokee), a Texas state judge, twice past President of the Texas Indian Bar Association, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Indiana University, wrote, when referring to my campaign: "This campaign is a valuable history lesson!" And Tom Wisner, a singer and song writer who is known nationally for his song "Chesapeake Born", and who has received national, state, and local awards for excellence in teaching, sent me an e-mail in response to the news of Rep. Mike Jaros' offer to help with the "important legislation" to change MN's geographic place names that are offensive to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. In the e-mail Mr. Wisner mentioned that it is "conceivable to hire good education song writers" to promote legislative projects to show due respect for Indigenous peoples' languages and traditional cultures. And he also mentioned that he "could develop a proposal if he (Rep. Mike Jaros) is interested".

Apparently, white racists used the evil name of the Devil to name twelve of Minnesota's geographic place names. Linda Godfrey, a best-selling author and award winning journalist wrote:

"Racial hatred was why many geographic places were given the name Devil. Place names evoking the Devil reflect a dominant attitude on the part of Euro-American settlers towards the New World during the migration into the wild West. The history of place names is based in mistranslation, deliberate insult and slur..., as well as a Christian notion of the wilderness as the domain of the Devil."

"The origination of many of the Devils across Wisconsin probably has more to do with racial hatred than anything else. Early white settlers were mostly Christian and viewed Native Americans with their different spiritual practices as heathens (at best) or savages and devil-worshipers (most likely). It's a long-standing tradition across time to demonize your foes prior to taking everything they have, including their lives, to assuage any possible feelings of guilt."

"Native Americans saw spirits in many shapes and forms and though there was sometimes a Supreme Being, goodness or badness or tricks flowed from a variety of sources. In the simplistic Either/Or view of the early settlers, this mind-set of multiple spiritual sources was tantamount to practicing deviltry, and so settlers tended to put a malevolent spin on the landscape when interpreting native names for the surrounding landscape."

"...in the native cosmogony there is no single evil spirit comparable to the devil. In the mind of the settlers though, all this "heathen" spirituality had to be the work or the sign of the devil. So the name Devil was given often to native areas known formerly by names meaning Sacred or Spirit or Mystery."

"For example, Devil's Lake in Wisconsin's Sauk County is the white settlers' interpretation of the Ho-Chunk name Day-wa-kun-chunk, meaning Sacred Lake.

In the Encyclopedia of North American Indians there is an article titled: Place names. The following excerpt was take from the article. "Manitou and Wakanda are common names on the map as Algonquian and Siouan terms for the Great Spirit. Whites often changed these names to Devil, and so we have Devil's Lake in Michigan, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and elsewhere."

In Minnesota we have Devil Track Lake and Devil Track River, in these cases the Ojibwe name for the Great Spirit (Manitou) was mistranslated Devil. And in Minnesota we also have Rum River and West Branch Rum River. In these cases the sacred Dakota name Wakan, translated as (Great) Spirit, was mistranslated as the "demon spirit" rum, which brought misery and ruin to many of the natives.

Let's replace these white racists names, let's not let these evil racist names adorn our geographic places and maps.

The first Pope (Peter) was a Jew, but all of the Popes since Peter have been white European men. I believe that the reason why a Catholic indigenous man of the Americas, who is participating in his people's culture, within his people's traditional homeland, can not become the Pope as well as why no other colored indigenous Catholic man who is participating in his people's culture, within his people's traditional homeland, can become the Pope is because the Roman Catholic Church believes in and practices extreme white racism in the context of radical institutional racism. Reference: statistics revealing institutional racism (3.)

I believe that many white people of European descent are psychologically addicted to a type of racism where in they need to dominate the world. They need their white European Pope sitting on the throne of Peter exercising great influence over the world.

A recent United Nations' World Conference Against Racism document proclaims that a 15th century Papal Bull "declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories." (4.) This Papal Bull, written by Pope Nicholas V, instructed Columbus and other slave traders to "capture, vanquish, and subdue the pagans, and other enemies of Christ," to "put them into perpetual slavery," and "to take all their possessions and property". (5.) And in Pope Alexander VI's papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera), he stated his desire that the "discovered" people be "subjugated and brought to the faith itself." By this means, said the pope, the "Christian Empire" would be propagated. (6.) Consequently, Columbus wrote, after discovering the homelands of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." (7.) ... (8.)

Reverend Bartolome de Las Casas, the first European historian in the Americas wrote, when referring to the Europeans' first forty years of genocidal behavior in the Americas:

"...for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons." Reference: (9.)

I believe that Pope Nicholas V and Pope Alexander VI were white racist genocidal madmen who are primarily responsible for 100,000,000 Indigenous Peoples of the Americas elimination in the course of Europe's ongoing "civilization" of the Western hemisphere. Both the present Pope as well as our nation's white Catholic Bishops are still pursuing Pope Nicholas V's and Pope Alexander VI's white racist genocidal agenda. Reference: (10.)

The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas sacred homelands were stolen from them, they were enslaved and killed by diseases, wars and alcohol. And those who survived this Roman Catholic Church instigated and promoted genocide were forced onto reservations (concentration camps) where they are now being assimilated. And on these reservations they are dying from alcohol abuse, hard drug abuse, tobacco abuse, poor diets etc.. And most white Christian leaders do not even care enough to do anything about this terrible situation. It's like when the Jews in white European Catholic nations were forced into slums where they were dying of malnutrition and diseases until Hitler decided not to prolong the genocide and exterminated them in his gas chambers.

Mililani Trask is an indigenous expert to the United Nations, she was nominated and appointed as the Pacific representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Ms. Trask is calling on Indigenous peoples the world over to work together to eliminate the prevailing colonial mindset. In her article, A Question of Sovereignty, Ms. Trask writes:"When you look at the nations sitting at the UN you can see that they're all sovereign, but nobody wants to give self-determination to Indigenous peoples."

"Why? Because with our history of colonization, our peoples were placed in a different political status from those of the dominant society. And that old colonial format was maintained by social mechanisms of power which exist to this very day."

"What are the roots of racism? We make a mistake if we believe that racism started when the colonizer sailed in. I really do not subscribe to this belief. If we're going to get to the roots of racism, we go beyond the point of colonization."

"Before Cook sails to Hawaii, what brought him there? What brought Columbus to America? What sent the Spaniards to Central and South America? How did that happen?"

"Well it started back in the 1500s and it started in Rome. From edicts that were enunciated through the Papal Bulls. These were statements and pronouncements that came from the Vatican. And with these pronouncements, the world was divided up for European Christian colonizers."

"What was actually happening at the time was that the monarchs of the Christian nations - the Brits, the French, the Italians, the Dutch - began to fight and war over land and natural resources. In seeking a way to resolve this bloodshed in Europe, they went to the Holy Father."

"This is at a period of time in Western history that predates the concept of secularization, there wasn't a division of the Church and the state and the Pope was the head of the world."

"And so we had, for a period of a couple of hundred years, these Papal Bulls sought to prevent the fighting by dividing the world."

"My favorite one is the Papal Bull of Pope Alexander the VI, it's called the Inter Caetera. When I read the translation of it, (it was written in Latin), it just stunned me. The Pope is saying here that he will sanctify the subjugation of the new world and its barbarous nations."

"So the blessing of the Pope was given, and the colonizer sailed out. It's important that we understand this to be the root of racism, because to this very day, the churches form a central part of the social system of the nation states that are Christian."

"And so the Pope divided up the world. When you look at the colonies, especially in North, Central and South America, you can see this division to this very day."

"When we get together and try to do business, it's tough. The Pacific peoples that come from Chile are speaking Spanish, the French coming in from Tahiti are speaking French, the Hawaiians are trying to regain our language but generally we speak in the tongue of the colonizers."

"We have to go back and seek accountability from the churches. And not only do we need to educate them, but we need to make a place for them at the table of reconciliation. They are called upon to acknowledge this past. To stand up and to walk with us, shoulder to shoulder. So that we can overturn these racist historical policies.

"I'm glad to see in the effort here in Australia that I have worked on myself, for reconciliation, strong voices come from the church. That is appropriate."

Christine Sleeter, a nationally and internationally renowned multicultural educator and social activist defines white racism or white supremacy as "the system of rules, procedures, and tacit beliefs that result in whites collectively maintaining control over the wealth and power of the nation and the world".

I believe that by indulging in extreme white racism the Roman Catholic Church continues to be the primary promoter of a health and earth destroying "civilization" and that it is continually spreading its influence throughout the world by way of its white supremacist world domination mission. And I believe that the reason why this is occurring is because the Roman Catholic Church is so radically white racist that it has not been able to, as Cardinal Danielou wrote: "refract Christianity through the many facets of human civilization. Christianity has been refracted through the Greek and Roman worlds, but it will have to be refracted through the Hindu facet and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas facet in order to attain its fulfillment. There are many aspects of Christianity that shall not be discover until Christianity has been refracted through every facet of the prism of human civilization." I also believe that the Roman Catholic Church is so extremely white racist that it can not believe that there are enough spiritual treasures in indigenous colored peoples' cultures and religions to make it worth while refracting Christianity though them in order to incorporate the spiritual treasures that are in them, hence it continues to lead the whole human race to its destruction.

In an article published in Minnesota's Saint Cloud Diocesan newspaper, the Visitor, James Engel, a past staff writer for the Visitor, wrote:

"Christianity came to the Americas nearly five centuries ago. Spirituality had been here long before that, and while Christians often disregard the principles of Christianity, nowhere has it done more damage than to the people native to the Americas. Traditionally, Native Americans recognized the presence of the Creator in all of His Creation...living and inert. Dating back centuries Native Americans are credited with respecting this creation: The lakes, which today are poisoned or have died. The earth, now cursed with pesticides and dotted with overcrowded landfills. The sky, today sporting holes in its unseen ozone and sporting too, thick layers of visible smog."

"European setters denied Native Americans their rights...to land, to life, to religion. Much was lost. And while there is little effort to retrieve that which was lost, something can be learned from it, even today."

"When Pope John Paul II toured the southern and western United States in the fall of 1987 he addressed, and was addressed by, a conference of Native Americans."

A Native American (Alfretta Antone) spoke at that conference and Engel wrote about his address:

"Upon initial contact with Europeans, we shared the land given us by our Creator and taught others how to survive here. History, however, stands as a witness to the use and abuse we have experienced in our homelands." "Today little remains of the gifts and richness which our Creator has shared with us, the original peoples of these lands."

Engle also wrote:

"Antone implored the Pope to help secure a dozen rights for Native Americans. Several dealt with fair treatment by the government, others dealt with much needed economic gains, others dealt with successful incorporation of Native American culture into American culture. But one stood out as important in its meaning, and its insight: (Antone said) 'That our sacred ways and prayers be respected'."

"Many Native Americans espouse some Christian religion, and while the Native American population in Minnesota might be higher than in some regions of the country, there is precious little Native American culture or pirituality in the ways and lives of central Minnesota Catholics. And, most probably, precious little respect for that spirituality."

"A 1977 pastoral letter on Native Americans, written by the bishops spoke of justice, the American experience, and the role of the Church. It spoke of faith and culture: the Catholic faith, the American culture. It virtually ignored the gifts, the talents, the spirituality that Native Americans bring to the Church."

It is because of this exclusive white racist mentality of the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy that the Catholic Church continues to lead the whole human race as well as all life on earth to its destruction. It is so extremely white racist that it can not do what it should do, and that is, refract Christianity through the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas facet of the prism of human civilization - and in doing so, incorporate the ecological awareness of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas into the Church, and by doing so, get the Church going in the direction of ecological salvation for the whole human race as well as for all other good life forms.

Hopefully, both, my local, national and international movement to replace Minnesota's geographic place names that are offensive to the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas as well as my - eliminating white racism in Christianity - Catholic teaching ministry will get the Roman Catholic Church going in the right direction.

Day by day, week by week, year by year, I am continually gaining more and more power to influence the Roman Catholic Church to change its course and get going in the right direction.

After the National Catholic Reporter was informed that I had received a letter from the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace it published a letter of mine about my effort to revert Minnesota's profane "Rum River" name back to its original Native name. The National Catholic Reporter is an independent newsweekly with over 120,000 loyal readers in 96 countries on 6 continents, a newsweekly that is commitment to in-depth reporting on global peace and justice issues and consistently wins national and international awards from the Catholic Press Association.

Archbishop Harry Flynn as well as my bishop, Bishop John Kinney, have given their support for my effort to change the profane Rum River name. In a letter from Archbishop Harry Flynn, he thanked me for crediting his support for a lot of the national and international support that I have received for my effort to change this river's profane name.

After sending an envelope containing (A.) a letter about my effort to change the profane Rum River name, (B.) the mentioned above letter from Archbishop Harry Flynn, (C.) a letter of support from the Tekakwitha Conference, an international Indigenous People of North America Catholic conference representing hundreds of tribes, and (D.) some "associated material", material about my worldview around the word wakan, Catholic prophetic visionary ministry, to the PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE, I received a response letter from Bishop Giampaola Crealdi, a secretary for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, wherein he wrote: "Thank you for your letter of 24 January 2004, on your efforts to change the name of a river in Minnesota. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has taken note of your campaign and the associated material you sent with your letter." The "associated material" was my booklet about my, worldview around the word wakan, Catholic prophetic visionary ministry.

Professor Christine Sleeter, the mentioned above multicultural educator, who lectures nationally and internationally, and who won the National Association for Multicultural Education Research Award, has given her supported for the effort to revert the name of the "Rum River" back to its original Native name. She sent me the following letter of support.

"I am writing to express my full support of the effort to return the "Rum River" to its original name, Wakan. I believe that this is the right and honorable thing to do for two reasons. First, there has been a long history among colonizers of changing names of the people and places as part of the process of conquest. As you know, schools have a history of Anglicizing children's names, which I see as a comparable practice to changing existing place names, as if the place did not already have a name. Names are valuable symbols of identity that should be respected."

"Second, when I found out why Europeans selected the name "Rum," I was appalled. Keeping that name maintains a racist, derogatory characterization of Mdewakanton Dakota peoples. U.S. citizens today do not need to perpetuate legacies of racism. The right thing to do would be to return the River to its original name, and get rid of the racist label that the name "Rum" keeps alive. I support the work you are doing to bring about this redress."

The more support I receive for my effort to revert the name of the "Rum River" back to its original Native name, the more power I gain to influence the Roman Catholic Church to change course and get going in the right direction.

related booklet

Restoring The Fundamental Human Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

By Thomas Dahlheimer

I am spearheading the local (MN), national and international movement to revert the faulty-translation and profane name of Minnesota’s "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota name Wakan, which translated means Spirit or Great Spirit. I am also trying to change 13 other derogatory MN geographic site names that are offensive to indigenous peoples.

After MN Representative Mike Jaros received my draft bill to change the name of the "Rum River" as well as 13 other MN geographic site names that are offensive to Native people, he slightly edited it and then with the consent of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council he introduced it to the MN legislature.

I am also trying to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to revoke the 1493 papal bull "Inter-Caetera." Shortly after Indigenous Peoples Literature posted an article of mine, titled, Changing The Racist Name Of The Knights Of Columbus , Tony Castanha (Carib/Boricua), the internationally renowned leader of the movement to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to revoke the Papal bull, Inter Caetera, contacted me and said that I am doing "great work" and to keep him "updated". More recently, after I sent him a link to my youtube.com video, titled: "Protesting The Racist Name Of The Knights Of Columbus" Mr. Castanha contacted me and said: "time to go after these ‘Knights’ guys…" Tony Castanha is also on the forefront of themovement to put an end to the glorification of the colonial pirate Christopher Columbus.
In 2000 a delegation of roughly 15-20 human and indigenous rights activists from the Americas and Pacific region, a delegation with a mission to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to revoke Inter Caetera, were "received" at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. This is where the delegation had been sending its "Appeal to the Vatican." The delegation met with a Monsignor under the President of the Council. He assured the delegation that they were on the right track, and that the Council was an important player along with the Secretariat of State. The issue of the revocation of the Bull "Inter Caetera" was submitted to a commission at the Secretariat of State. This was a victory indicating for the first time that the Vatican is seriously considering this issue.

Revoking the Papal bull, Inter Caetera, would help restore the fundamental human rights of indigenous peoples. A movement to revoke the papal bull has been ongoing for a number of years. It was initiated by the Indigenous Law Institute in 1992. At the Parliament of World Religions in 1994 over 60 indigenous delegates drafted a Declaration of Vision. It reads, in part:

"We call upon the people of conscience in the Roman Catholic hierarchy to persuade Pope John II to formally revoke the Inter Caetera Bull of May 4, 1493, which will restore our fundamental human rights. That Papal document called for our Nations and Peoples to be subjugated so the Christian Empire and its doctrines would be propagated. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh 8 Wheat 543 (in 1823) adopted the same principle of subjugation expressed in the Inter Caetera Bull. This Papal Bull has been, and continues to be, devastating to our religions, our cultures, and the survival of our populations."

Essentially, Inter Caetera is the cornerstone of an international system today based on the same ideology of dominion, subjugation and exploitation of lands and peoples as ushered into Africa and the Americas in the 15th century. We are not saying that the Catholic church is perpetuating the same atrocities they did 500 years ago, but what we are saying is that the same ideology and mentality of dominion grounded in contemporary law is ROOTED IN THEIR LAWS and this must be acknowledged and addressed.

The revocation of Inter Caetera will definitely announce before the world community that the Vatican no longer supports the principle of subjugation that it promulgated five and a half centuries ago. The Roman Catholic church will be demonstrating its seriousness about respecting the rights and dignity of all peoples. The revocation of Inter Caetera will be an extremely important spiritual and symbolic gesture of peace and healing in creating a culture of peace on earth.

The doctrine of discovery was a principle of international law developed in a series of 15th century papal bulls and 16th century charters by European monarchs. The doctrine essentially gave white Europeans the green light to go forth and claim the lands of non-Christian peoples and enslave their inhabitants.

In recent years, various tribal members and groups around the country have asked the pope to rescind the 15th century papal bulls.

Finally, after 500 years of the Papal sanctioned domination and subjugation of indigenous peoples, a group of continental U.S. Christians are asking the current English monarch to renounce the ”doctrine of discovery” that resulted in the genocide, colonization and dispossession of the indigenous peoples of the ”new world.”

Maine’s Episcopal diocese is the first in the continental United States to protest against the "doctrine of discovery". The diocese passed a resolution at their annual convention Oct. 26 calling for Queen Elizabeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury ”to disavow and rescind the claimed validity of the doctrine of discovery against all peoples, specifically as it is set forth in the 1496 Royal Charter granted to John Cabot and his sons by King Henry VII, and all other doctrines that have been relied thereon for the dispossession of lands and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples from their initial use to the present.”

Several years ago the United Church of Christ, Hawai’i Conference, passed a resolution which resolves that: "President Paul Sherry on behalf of the United Church of Christ urges and calls upon people of conscience in the Roman Catholic hierarchy and in other organized religions to persuade Pope John Paul II to revoke the Papal Bulls Dum Diversas of 1452 [Romanus Pontifex of 1455] and Inter Caetera of 1493.…"

On November 26th 2007 I attended an Anoka-Hennepin Indian Education Parent Committee and Indian Education Staff public hearing. It was held in Anoka, Minnesota. The "Rum River" finds its confluence with the Mississippi River in Anoka. During the hearing I addressed the committee and staff and spoke about the work I am are doing to change Minnesota’s derogatory names that are offensive to Indian people.

I was asked a lot of questions, therefore, I was allowed to address the committee and staff for about twenty minutes. I told them about Jim Anderson’s and my two hour meeting with the mayor of Anoka, I spoke about the progress we made toward [fully] establishing an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance. I also mentioned that we are trying to influence the City of Anoka to sponsor Anoka Pow Wows, cross-cultural educational programs, blend spirituality services, etc.. Jim Anderson is the Cultural Chair for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community and leading Minnesota Dakota activist.

I also spoke about a U.N. World Conference Against Racism Conference document that identifies two 15th century Papal bulls as the source of white racism against indigenous peoples. In addition, I mentioned that there is an international movement to influence the Vatican to revoke these Papal bulls. I told them that I have been corresponding with internationally renowned indigenous activists and internationally renowned multi-cultural educators and social activists. I also talked to them about my article "Changing The Racist Name Of The Knights of Columbus. When doing so, I mentioned the correspondence I had with two prominent member of Anoka’s Knights of Columbus organization.

I also mentioned that I believe that what is being taught in the public schools is "propaganda" and that the real history of what happened to the indigenous peoples of the Americas is still being covered up.

I told them that European international colonial law was based on two 15th century Papal bulls, and that it is called the "doctrine of discovery". I also mentioned that it was modified and then officially established as a U.S. law in 1832, and that - from a Christian perspective - it is a"doctrine of the Devil", and that America is based or founded on this doctrine of the Devil, and that this evil racist and religious sectarian doctrine should be replaced with a good humanitarian doctrine which respects the basic or fundamental human rights of all people.
The meeting went great and I was asked to come to their next meeting on the 28th of January and present more information on these topics. They also told me that Jim Anderson is welcome to address the committee and staff during their next meeting.

In the near future Mr. Anderson and I will be meeting again with the mayor of Anoka. Anderson recently told me that he will address the Anoka-Hennepin Indian Education Parent Committee and Indian Education Staff on the 28th of January, 2007.

On December 6th, 2007 I met with the mayor of Anoka and talked again about these mentioned above issues. After sending Leonard Wabasha, a hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate, manager of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community Cultural Resource Department and adviser of mine an e-mail about my recent meeting with the mayor of Anoka he asked that I ask the City of Anoka to write letters to the Minnesota Dakota Reservation Tribal Councils inviting them to get involved with Anoka’s mission to unite and reconcile with the Dakota people. I recently did what Mr. Wabasha advised me to do.

During my most recent meeting with the mayor of Anoka he told me that there is an Anoka organization that is being led by the President of the Anoka County Historical Society, Paul Pierce, and that this organization is trying to influence the City of Anoka to change the name of Anoka’s "Rum River Nature Area". I called Paul Pierce a few years ago and he, at the time, gave his support for the effort to change the profane "Rum River" name back to its sacred Dakota name Wakan.
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Link to timeline of the efforts by Indigenous Nations and Peoples calling upon the Vatican to revoke the Inter Caetera Papal Bull of 1493: Timeline

Regaining The Dakota's Mille Lacs Ancestral Homeland

By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

On a Mille Lacs Kathio State Park interpretive sign, Leonard E. Wabasha is quoted as saying: "My people are the Mdewakanton Oyate. Mdewakanton means the People of Spirit Lake. Today that lake is known as Mille Lacs. This landscape is sacred to the Mdewakanton Oyate because one Otokaheys Woyakapi (creation story) says we were created here. It is especially pleasing for me to come here and walk these trails, because about 1718 the first Chief Wapahasa was born here, at the headwaters of the Spirit River. I am the eighth in this line of hereditary chiefs."
(ref. 1)

When referring to the Mdewakanton "Sioux's" (Dakota's) Mille Lacs history, Angel Oehrlein wrote, in a Nov. 8th Mille Lacs Messenger letter: "When we attended schools in the 1930's, we studied actual events, such as French-sponsored Sieur DuLuth's 1760s Vineland battle, which drove the Sioux from the Mille Lacs area.

"Minnesota's DNR website presents information about this topic. "Early White/Indian intervention played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe."
(ref. 2)

On a Minnesota Historical Society plaque located near the mouth of "Spirit River" (currently name "Rum River") there are the words, when referring to the Dakota's ancient Mille Lacs village: "About 1750 the Chippewa moving westward from lake Superior captured the village, and by this decisive battle drove the Sioux permanently into southern Minnesota." (ref. 3)

On the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton website the Lower Sioux state that: "Long ago, the Mdewakanton Dakota lived around Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Around 1750, our ancestors were displaced by another nation, the Anishinnabe, and they relocated throughout the southern portion of the state. This was not the last time the Mdewakantons would be forced into a new home." (ref. 4)

The S.D. Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe states on a website about their history that" The "Santee Sioux bands" had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs.

And on Nebraska's Santee Tribe website there are the words: "The Santee's defeat by the Chippewas at the Battle of Kathio in the late 1700s forced them to move to the southern half of the state which would bring them into close contact and eventually conflict with the white settlers. From that point on, survival for the Santee Tribe would become a daily struggle.
(ref. 5)

As Europeans settled the East coast, they displaced eastern tribes who then migrated to get away from the White civilization, and they, in their turn, with the help of the western-moving Europeans, displaced weaker local tribes they encountered, and pushed many of those tribes farther from their homelands, as they took over their homelands. (ref. 6)

Europeans sought to extinguish the ancestral ties that these local tribes have with the land, their ancestors and the spirit world. Evidence of this practice has shown itself time and time again throughout the Americas and is now facing international pressure in an effort to correct the sins of the present by recognizing and addressing the history of the Americas.On July 2, 1679 Duluth planted the flag of France on the Dakota people's sacred Mille Lacs area homeland, where the Dakota had lived for at least a thousand years. What was the significance of this flag planting?

According to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document: "In the fifteenth century, two Papal Bulls set the stage for European domination of the New World and Africa. Romanus Pontifex, issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal in 1452, declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories." In Pope Alexander VI's papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera), he stated his desire that the "discovered" people be "subjugated and brought to the faith itself." By this means, said the pope, the "Christian Empire" would be propagated. These Papal Bulls, or "doctrines of discovery", sanctioned Christian nations to claim "unoccupied lands", or lands belonging to "heathens" or "pagans". (ref. 7)

Therefore, when Duluth planted the flag of France on the Dakotas sacred Mille Lacs area homeland he was proclaiming that the Dakota's Mille Lacs homeland now belonged to France. The indigenous people of the Americas were red pagans, and not white European Christians, therefore, according to fifteenth century papal bulls, they did not own the land that they were living on, nor did they have a moral or legal right to own any land. Therefore, the unoccupied land that the indigenous people discovered and were living on could be claimed by the first European Christian explorer to plant his nation's flag on it.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition tells that, by the end of the 1760s Kathio battle, their ancestors had violently forced the Dakota from their Mille Lacs area homeland; and that that is how they took possession of the Mille Lacs area land that they now live on. However, because they were indigenous red pagans they didn't own the land that they, with the help of the Europeans, took from the Dakota people. And these indigenous red Ojibwe pagans, to this present-day, do not own the land that they are now living on, its U.S.A. federal land. The indigenous people of the Americas, still, do not have a papal granted moral right to own land. The papal bull Inter Caetera has not yet been revoked. (ref. 8) I am working to rectify this injustice. (ref. 9) At least a part of the Dakota people's original Mille Lacs area homeland should be give back to them.