Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery by Steven T. Newcomb

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Synopsis

Pagans in the Promised Land provides a startling challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy. Using history and cognitive theory, Steven Newcomb demonstrates how U.S. government officials have used religious concepts of Christendom, often unconsciously, to justify the taking of Native American lands and to deny the original independence of Indian nations. He demonstrates that the landmark case Johnson v. M'Intosh is premised in part on the Old Testament narrative of the "chosen people" having a divine right to the "promised land," and how continued U.S. reliance on ancient religious distinctions between "Christians" and "heathens" violates the bedrock doctrine of separation of church and state. An important addition to Native American and legal scholarship, Pagans in the Promised Land makes a compelling case for the reversal of this conqueror-based doctrine, which continues to influence U.S. policy at home and abroad.

About the Author:
Steven T. Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) is the indigenous law research coordinator for the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County, California

Biography

Steven T. Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) is the indigenous law research coordinator at the Sycuan education department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County, California. He is cofounder and codirector of the Indigenous Law Institute, a fellow with the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative at Buffalo State College in New York.