Review of Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies by Robert J. Miller, Jacinta Ruru, Larissa Behrendt, and Tracey Lindberg

Authors

Blake A. Watson, University of Dayton

Date of this Version

Winter 2012

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 32:1 (Winter 2012).

Comments

Copyright © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

The Doctrine of Discovery provides that colonizing European nations automatically acquired certain property, governmental, and commercial rights over Indigenous inhabitants. In recent years, Indigenous peoples, legal scholars, religious institutions, and nongovernmental organizations have pressed for official repudiation of the Doctrine. In 2007, the United Nations voted (over the initial opposition of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States) to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which contains several provisions that acknowledge the rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands. In 2012, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples will devote its Eleventh Session to a study of the Doctrine of Discovery and its enduring impact.