{"id":397200,"date":"2023-08-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=397200"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"NMC-faculty-to-discuss-indigenous-rights-at-history-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/NMC-faculty-to-discuss-indigenous-rights-at-history-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"NMC faculty to discuss indigenous rights at history conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas College associate professors William Fife and Beylul Solomon will be presenting their recent University of Southern California law journal publication, Indigenous Rights: A Pathway to End American Second-Class Citizenship,<\/em>\u00a0at the upcoming Marianas History Conference on Sept. 1-3, 2023, on Saipan.<\/p>\n

Registration information for the event can be found on https:\/\/www.uog.edu\/mhc2023\/index.php<\/a>. The first 50 students from the CNMI register for free.<\/p>\n

The 6th Marianas History Conference theme is \u201cHealing the Wounds of History.\u201d The conference was last held in 2021, with over 600 participants representing 12 countries.<\/p>\n

At the conference, Fife and Solomon will discuss how over 500 years of global genocidal colonialism was Vatican-authorized through the active international law known as the \u201cDoctrine of Discovery,\u201d which continues to oppress indigenous peoples in America through what they refer to as the \u201cDiscovery Cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fife and Solomon coined the novel concept of the \u201cDiscovery Cases\u201d\u2014a collective group of racist U.S. Supreme Court rulings that incorporate the Doctrine of Discovery into active American case law, beginning with 1823\u2019s Johnson v. M\u2019Intosh<\/em> and its progeny, which include the \u201cInsular Cases.\u201d The \u201cDiscovery Cases\u201d continue to dispossess indigenous peoples of their sacred lands, and enshrine second-class citizenship for Americans residing in U.S. territories.<\/p>\n

Fife and Solomon propose implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through local and national legislation, which could provide a pathway to overturn the \u201cDiscovery Cases\u201d and enable greater self-determination in U.S. territories, thereby ending American second-class citizenship and ensuring the cultural survival of indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

Fife and Solomon collaborated on two publications that utilize indigenous rights to address \u201chealing the wounds of history\u201d in the Marianas. Indigenous Rights: A Pathway to End American Second-Class Citizenship<\/em>\u00a0covers regional, national, and international legal and political issues in USC\u2019s Review of Law and Social Justice. Their first collaboration, Indigenous Rights: A Vehicle to Address Mental Health and Academic Outcomes in the CNMI<\/em>, discussed how to improve local disparities in the textbook, Learning and Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education in Oceania<\/em>. Both publications focus on the importance of cultural identity to heal the ongoing legacies of systemic racism and intergenerational trauma.<\/p>\n

Solomon won the Northern Marianas Humanities Council 2022 Governor\u2019s Award for Research and Publication as lead author of Indigenous Rights: A Vehicle to Address Mental Health and Academic Outcomes in the CNMI<\/em>. Fife presented Indigenous Rights: A Pathway to End American Second-Class Citizenship<\/em>\u00a0at a recent USC law school symposium, and the article was also featured in \u201cRace, Racism, and the Law,\u201d which is hosted by Dayton University of Law professor emerita Vernellia R. Randall.<\/p>\n

Fife received his J.D. in 2013. He worked as a legal aid attorney with Micronesian Legal Services Corporation and as a teacher at Kagman High School before joining NMC as an associate professor in the Social Sciences and Fine Arts Department.<\/p>\n

Solomon received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 2009 and is currently an associate professor at NMC\u2019s School of Education.<\/p>\n

To register for the conference, visit https:\/\/www.uog.edu\/mhc2023\/index.php<\/a>. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

William Fife and Beylul Solomon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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