Episode 22: Where Are We Now? Why Domination Is the Beginning of the Conversation, Not the End

On 08 June 2026 • Duration 56:03

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In this episode of *Domination Chronicles*, Steven T. Newcomb and Peter d’Errico explore why “domination” has become a slogan instead of a serious inquiry—and why language, law, history, and power must be carefully unpacked.

What do we really mean when we talk about domination?

In our latest episode of Domination Chronicles, we step back and ask a question that matters more than ever: where are we now in this work—and how did we get here?

Too often, words like domination and discovery get reduced to slogans. They circulate as conclusions, as if simply naming the problem is the same thing as understanding it. In this conversation, we explain why that is not enough.

For us, the word domination is not a trend, a meme, or a rhetorical shortcut. It points to a deep and long historical pattern—one tied to law, religion, empire, political language, and systems of control that stretch back through centuries of Christendom and into the foundations of federal Indian law. As Steven reflects in the episode, this line of inquiry did not appear overnight. It emerged from decades of research, including careful study of terms like dominion, conquest, sovereignty, and treaty, and from asking what those words are actually doing beneath the surface.

One of the central ideas we revisit here is that the real issue is not merely the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery.” More precisely, it is a claim of a right of domination. That distinction matters. It shifts the focus away from a familiar phrase and toward the underlying pattern of assertion, control, and assumed authority that the phrase conceals.

We also talk about why language itself has to be excavated. Not skimmed. Not repeated. Excavated.

What do people mean when they say treaty rights? What is tribal sovereignty? What is a right? What is a claim? What happens when one side names an arrangement in its own language and power, while presenting it as mutual or benevolent? These are not abstract academic questions. They shape how people understand reality, history, and the political structures still operating today.

In this episode, we reflect on our long-running method: ongoing conversation, curiosity, and a refusal to stop at easy answers. We return to Johnson v. M’Intosh, not just as a legal text, but as a window into a larger cognitive and political world. We explore how words like pretension, conquest, and discovery can disguise domination even while enacting it. And we ask what gets lost when people rush to the slogan without doing the slower work of understanding the system underneath it.

This is also a conversation about plurality. Against the pressure toward “one world,” “one truth,” “one government,” or “one solution,” we reflect on the reality of many peoples, many languages, many ways of being in relation. That plurality is not a problem to be dissolved. It is part of what makes genuine relationship, real conversation, and meaningful coexistence possible.

If you’ve been following our work, this episode is a clear statement of where we are now. If you’re new to Domination Chronicles, it is also a strong place to begin—because it shows how we think, how we work, and why we insist on going deeper than the slogans.

We invite you to listen in and join us in that deeper inquiry.

Transcript

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RESOURCES:

• Steve Newcomb on Substack
• Peter d'Errico on Substack
• Oyate Woyaka, the latest film project Steve has worked on, is now showing on PBS.
• Steve's book, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery(2008) laid bare the religious foundation of US law related to the Original Peoples of the continent.
• Peter wrote the Foreword to Pagans, available on his Substack.
• In 2014, Steve teamed up with Director Sheldon P. Wolfchild to produce a documentary film based on Pagans: The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code.
• Steve maintains a website, Original Free Nations: Cutting-Edge Research for Indigenous Peoples' Liberation, going back to his work with the late Birgil Kills Straight, a Traditional Headman and Elder of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and the Indigenous law Institute.

JCRT 25.1 Challenging the Justifications of Domination through Law: Indigenous Resistance and the Undoing of Christian Empire

• Peter d'Errico. 2026. "Federal Anti-Indian Law: Why a Challenge to 'Christian Discovery' Creates a Metaphysical Crisis for the US." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 1--15. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/derrico/
• Jode Goudy. 2026. "Right & Respectful Relations: A Memoir of the Road to the Historic Yakama Nation Amicus Brief Challenging 'Christian Discovery' in Washington State V. Cougar Den." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 16--50. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/goudy/
• Joseph J. Heath. 2026. "The Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination: How It Has Been Used by United States Courts to Deny Treaty Rights & Dismiss the Haudenosaunee Land Rights Cases." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 51--60. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/heath/
• Robert J. Miller. 2026. "The International Law of Colonialism: The Doctrine of Discovery." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 61--67. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/miller/
• Steven T. Newcomb. 2026. "My Decades-Long Inquiry Into the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 68--84. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/newcomb/
• Phillip Rodgers-Falk. 2026. "An Intergenerational and Perpetual Imperium of Domination and Subjugation of Indigenous Peoples: The Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Royal Supremacy." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 85--99. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/rodgers-falk/
• Steven J. Schwartzberg. 2026. "An Appeal to the American People---Overturning 'Federal Indian Law.'" Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 100--136. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/schwartzberg/
• Philip P. Arnold, Sandra Bigtree, and Adam DJ Brett. 2026. "Conclusion: Dismantling the Doctrine of Christian Discovery Cultivating Right Relations." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 137--39. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/conclusion/
• Adam DJ Brett, Betty Hill (Lyons), and Nethanial Belmont. 2026. "A Postscript: Sovereignty Is Still the Issue." Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory 25 (1): 140--61. https://jcrt.org/archives/25.1/postscript/

Citation

Steve Newcomb and Peter d’Errico, "Episode 22: Where Are We Now? Why Domination Is the Beginning of the Conversation, Not the End" Domination Chronicles(Podcast), 2026-06-08, https://dominationchronicles.com/e022-where.

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