The Great Absence
Ann Arbor’s 200th anniversary celebrations in 2024 will provide a panoramic view of the city’s history. The Potawatomi people will have no voice in the celebration because we extinguished their presence from our community, the great absence. The white settlers and our government stole the land we call Ann Arbor and made them disappear 200 years ago through treaty and removal.
A thread of mourning needs to run through the 200th celebration, mourning for the absence of Native communities in or near Ann Arbor and mourning for the willingness of the settlers and our government to harm the Native peoples for our benefit and then ignore the harm they caused, which our government and American people continue to inflict upon Native peoples.
The draft timeline chronicles the interactions of the Native peoples with Europeans and later with Americans up to the founding of Ann Arbor. The information comes from primarily white sources. I encourage those with better sources, especially Native peoples, to make the needed corrections. See the timeline here.
Doctrine of Christian Discovery
The Doctrines of Christian Discovery originate with 15th century Papal Bulls that were issued by the Vatican and implemented by Monarchies, sanctioning the brutal Conquest and Colonization of non-Christians who were deemed “enemies of Christ” in Africa and the Americas. The papal bulls gave the Vatican’s blessings to
“invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit”
White Exceptionalism and the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
The belief that European civilization and culture are superior to any other culture is an example of exceptionalism: no other culture can approach what Europeans (and White Americans) have contributed to the world in terms of religion, music, art, philosophy, economy, laws, and governance. European Christian exceptionalism was expressed during the Age of Discovery and colonialism. White American exceptionalism continues to evolve out of this cognitive and ethical flaw.
