Domination Chronicles 023: Bishops, Papal Bulls, and the Problem of Domination

Episode 23 of Domination Chronicles is now available: “Bishops, Papal Bulls, and the Problem of Domination.” We are sharing it as part of the Indigenous Law Institute’s continuing work on empire, Christian discovery, federal Indian law, and the claimed right of domination over Original Nations and Peoples.

In this episode, Peter d’Errico interviews Steven T. Newcomb about the May 2026 Knowledge-Sharing Symposium on the Doctrine of Discovery in Edmonton, Alberta, on Cree Nation Treaty 6 territory. The gathering was hosted by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and included Catholic, Vatican, Indigenous, legal, and scholarly participants.

For ILI readers, the central value of the episode is its insistence that “discovery” is not the deepest problem. The word can become a red herring if it keeps attention away from domination: the claimed authority of Christian empires, monarchs, churches, and states to invade, convert, dispossess, rule, and define Native nations.

Newcomb and d’Errico discuss the 1493 papal bull Inter Caetera, the long call to revoke the papal bulls, and the limits of softer institutional language such as “renunciation,” “repudiation,” or “reconciliation.” Those words may sound constructive, but they can also weaken the analysis when they fail to confront the structure of domination itself.

The conversation also revisits the early 1990s origins of the revocation effort, shaped through Newcomb’s conversations with Birgil Kills Straight, a Lakota ceremonial leader. That history remains important because it shows that the call was never only symbolic. It was a direct challenge to the religious and legal framework that has normalized domination for centuries.

We recommend this episode for listeners studying the Doctrine of Discovery, papal bulls, Indigenous legal history, and the language used to conceal domination inside law and public policy.

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