The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers is lending their support to correct the 500 year old mistake that set the stage for the oppression of native people around the world.

After the return of Columbus, in 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued a declaration sanctifying the conquest of people who were non-Christian and therefore “barbarous,” unworthy to own the land where they had been living for thousands of years. Known as the “Inter Caetera bull,” this document inspired England’s King Henry VII to issue his own royal charter of “Discovery” in 1496, and set the precedent for the domination of indigenous people worldwide under the vast empires of European nations who could now claim that their theft of land from native inhabitants was the will of God.

This papal doctrine has never been withdrawn, so in 1984, the indigenous human rights organization Tonatierra called for the Pope to revoke it. In 1992, the Indigenous Law Institute in Eugene, Oregon, began a global campaign, and wrote an open letter to Pope John Paul II. By now, indigenous peoples from all over the world are endorsing the revocation of this insulting doctrine. Below is the text of a resolution from The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, and following that, a letter recently written to a representative of the Vatican.

Resolution Calling Upon the Pope to Recognize Native People

WHEREAS all relations between Nation-States and tribal people in the Americas, in Africa and in Oceana is rooted in the “Doctrine of Discovery,”

WHEREAS the “Doctrine of Discovery” is based on a fallacy whereby land inhabited by millions of people can be “discovered” by European fortune seekers,

WHEREAS the Inter Caetera Bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 is the enabling document that created the “Doctrine of Discovery,”

WHEREAS the Inter Caetera Bull refers to native peoples as “barbarous nations” and commands that they “be subjugated and brought to the faith itself,”

WHEREAS the Roman Catholic Church has not revoked the Inter Caetera Bull,

WHEREAS tribal nations have suffered the brutal effects of this fallacious policy since their first contact with Europeans and continue to endure its lasting negative impacts,

WHEREAS the result of the Inter Caetera Bull is that many tribal peoples are still denied recognition of their fundamental right to exist as sovereign nations.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers calls upon the Pope, as the leader of the Catholic Church, to revoke the Inter Caetera Bull of 1493 and related edicts and to recognize that all People on the Earth have equal rights.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers calls upon all the People of the Earth to recognize that all People have equal rights.

~~~~~~~~~~~

October 22, 2005

Walter Cardinal Kasper

Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

The Vatican

Dear Cardinal Kasper,

We are the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous

Grandmothers. Affirming our relations with traditional medicine

peoples and communities throughout the world, we have been brought

together by a common vision to form a global alliance of prayer,

education and healing for our Mother Earth and all her children.

We believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing

are vitally needed today. We have come together to nurture and

educate our children, and to protect the lands and cultures upon which

our peoples depend. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors

will light our way through an uncertain future.

We honor you and Pope Benedict XVI as servants of the Creator, and

respect your work and prayers for our children, for world peace, and

for the healing of our Mother Earth and her people. We particularly

acknowledge and honor your efforts to bring understanding between

peoples of all faiths and to harmonize the values and beliefs among

the religious traditions. It is because of your courageous work in

these areas that we respectfully make our request known to you.

The relationship between nation-states and tribal peoples in the

Americas, Africa, and Oceania rests on the foundation of the “doctrine

of conquest” or alternatively, the “doctrine of discovery.” The

origins of the governmental doctrines of “conquest” and “discovery”

may be traced directly to various medieval papal bulls and edicts,

notably the bulls Dum Diversas, June 18, 1452, Romanus Pontifex,

January 8, 1455, and Inter Caetera, May 4, 1493. These papal edicts

granted dominion to European nations over lands which had been

occupied by tribal peoples for thousands of years. They also laid the

basis for the European “Age of Discovery”, setting in motion a

disastrous chain of events which ultimately resulted in the outright

theft of entire continents from indigenous peoples worldwide.

While these papal bulls and edicts were written over five hundred

years ago, they remain the spiritual, legal, and moral foundation for

the exercise of jurisdiction over tribal nations by nation-states

today. Given the inherently unjust moral and legal basis for their

authority, nation-states have only been able to exercise their rule

over tribal nations through warfare and acts of violence.

Were these acts of violence, both physical and cultural, confined to

history, perhaps we would focus our collective efforts on other

concerns. But unfortunately, this is not the case; they persist into

the present. Our peoples must still live with the continuing legacy of

this first denial of our right to be treated as equal participants in

the community of nations. Our peoples are still struggling for the

right to live on earth and practice our cultural and spiritual

traditions as our ancestors did.

Revocation of these bulls and other papal edicts will remove the

keystone of legal authority upon which the doctrines of conquest and

discovery were constructed. Such an act will set in motion a global

healing of the deep wounds suffered by the indigenous peoples of the

world. By acknowledging the injustice at its source, it will also

bring healing to those who inflicted these wounds and it will bring

our peoples into harmonious and peaceful relations with the Roman

Catholic Church. This will begin to have an effect on the daily

struggles of our peoples for sovereignty and cultural survival. At

this time the need for world unity is urgent, and we are committed to

being a voice for unity and peace among all peoples. It is in this

spirit and with this common vision to safeguard the world and the

future of humanity that we wish to embark upon new relations with the

Roman Catholic Church.

We, the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers,

call upon Pope Benedict XVI to retract the Dum Diversas Bull, the

Romanus Pontifex Bull, and the Inter Caetera Bull, and all related

papal doctrines, thereby reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church¹s

recognition that all people on the Earth are equal before our Creator.

We thank you for honoring us by taking the time to read and consider

our request.

Sincerely,

The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Margaret Behan, Cheyenne-Arapaho

Rita Pikta Blumenstein, Yupik

Aama Bombo, Tamang

Julieta Casimiro, Mazatec

Flordemayo, Mayan

Maria Alice Campos Freire, Brazil

Tsering Dolma Gyalthong, Tibetan

Beatrice Holy Dance Long Visitor, Lakota

Rita Holy Dance Long Visitor, Lakota

Agnes Pigrim, Takelma/Siletz

Mona Palocca, Hopi/Havasupai

Clara Shinobu Iura, Brazil

Bernadette Rebienot, Omyene

Sources:

Pizarro to Atahualpa - Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, “Collision at Cayamarca,” p. 74, Norton, 2005, hardcover edition

It’s a eyewitness account by one of Pizarro’s company, although Diamond doesn’t specify exactly who.

The text is changed slightly from the book. “Emperor of the Roman Catholic Empire” (from Diamond, p. 69) is substituted for “he” in the original, and a few words about God in the second sentence are left out (“the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things in them”).