To the Editor,
In Fillmore County, we reside on the ancestral lands of the Dakota Nation. On July 4th, we celebrated the extraordinary accomplishments of the brilliant persons behind the country’s founding to forge a new kind of social contract on the premise that “all men are created equal” and that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” During that weekend, I reminded myself that few people, including the framers of this nation, get everything right when they create something that’s brand new. And among things they did horribly wrong, along with accepting barbaric slavery, was to steal from the inhabitants they found on this continent.
According to the World History Encyclopedia*, “… Native Americans did not believe one could own land while, to the European colonizers, owning land was a God-given right.” This belief, supported by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, claimed that any land not controlled by a sovereign nation would belong to whomever “discovered” it. This “Doctrine of Discovery” gave early explorers permission to seize lands from indigenous peoples all over the Americas. And even though Pope Francis formally repudiated this doctrine in 2023, it remains in legal force today.
So, as I watched the fireworks and now continue to celebrate our nation’s birthday, I thank our founders for aspiring to a new way of governing free people, while also recognizing their shortcomings which I and others will work to correct.
*worldhistory.org/Doctrine_of_Discovery/
David Hennessey,
Preston, MN
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