Did a key Supreme Court opinion on Native American land rights derive from a 1493 papal edict?
An 1823 Supreme Court decision voiding a pre-revolutionary land sale by Piankeshaw Indians relied on a principle laid down more than three centuries earlier by Pope Alexander VI. The decision, in one of three key cases known as the "Marshall Trilogy," helped establish federal authority over Native Americans.
Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion cited a "discovery doctrine," which was proclaimed by the pope in 1493, permitting Spanish explorers to "bring under your sway the mainlands and islands" of the "undiscovered" New World. Other European colonial powers invoked the doctrine to claim for themselves any land not occupied by Christians.
In 1823, Marshall held that a colonizing nation gains sovereignty and title over the land it "discovers." In modern times, the "discovery doctrine" has been repudiated by many organizations including the World Council of Churches.
