Doctrine of Discovery

A few blocks away from where I live, there’s a lovely green space. Renaissance Park is a revived bit of Chattanooga along the Tennessee River. There’s a walking tour that you can take, where you call a phone number and hear the history of the place. Within that explanation, a soothing voice speaks of how the Trail of Tears began on that piece of land. But, the audio recording goes on to explain, the removal of the Native people allowed us to have a vibrant business district.

As if the genocide of a people is all good because there’s an Applebee’s now.

I remembered that infuriating recording when I spoke to Mark Charles about the Doctrine of Discovery. Mark is the son of a Navajo man who lives on a Navajo reservation. He writes and speaks with a hope of forging peace through racial reconciliation. He wants to build “cross-cultural relationships of forgiveness, repentance, love and hope that result in walking in beauty with one another and God.”