Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
• Published by: Fulcrum Publishing January 29, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1555916422
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1555916428
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 8.8 ounces

Product Review
"shines an informative light into understanding the conscious-and unconscious-founding principles of 'the United States of America' empire." -- The Indypendent, April 25, 2008

"a must-read for anybody wishing to understand what truly motivates American policy towards the indigenous peoples within its borders." -- Blogcritics.org, April 27, 2008

"a powerful book. Read it and you'll understand how this dominating mentality influences U.S. domestic and foreign policy today." -- Indian Country Today, April 23, 2008

Product Description
Pagans in the Promised Land provides a unique, well-researched challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy. It attacks the presumption that American Indian nations are legitimately subject to the plenary power of the United States. Steve Newcomb puts forth a startling theory that U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on Old Testament narratives of the chosen people and the promised land, as exemplified in the 1823 Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh, that the first "Christian people" to "discover" lands inhabited by "natives, who were heathens," have an ultimate title to and dominion over these lands and peoples. This imporant addition to legal scholarship asserts there is no separation of church and state in the United States, so long as U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on the ancient religious distinctions between "Christians" and "heathens."

Reader Reviews
Newcomb delivers an analysis on U.S. federal Indian law that traces its racist history to Christian discovery and dominion. The entirety of the book is devoted to elucidating the idealized cognitive models (ICMs) present in U.S. Indian policy that originated in the expansion of Christendom and the entitlement of Europeans as chosen people and conquers on native lands. The final chapter is definitely worth waiting for as Newcomb summarizes and projects into the present-day his well-researched and professional perspective on how and why American Indians have always faced such extremely racist treatment from the United States. For example, he writes "Because other books have dealt quite capably with U. S. statues and legal decisions dealing with Indians, the aim of this work has been to use some of the findings of cognitive theory to account for the mentality of empire and domination that has resulted in the assumption that originally free and independent Indian nations and peoples are now subject to the plenary power and dominion of U. S. government. The same mentality has also resulted in Indian people losing before the Supreme Court more than eighty percent of the time, more often than convicted criminals seeking reversals of their convictions." He goes on to relate the well-developed, Christian-based, American psychology of dominion over indigenous people in the United States to the post-9/11 American Empire. Pagans in the Promised Land is an essential perspective for Americans of European-decent to grasp as even citizens of an atheist background will realize the depth to which our cultural attitudes and prejudices (racism, sexism, classism, etc.) are rooted in the Christian doctrines of domination, entitlement, evangelism, and superiority.