As groups that came out of Mennonite organizing, Mennonite Action and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery share similar values. Like our shared commitment towards decolonization. Learn about the origins of Mennonite Action and how the story of Anabaptism has inspired, and sometimes hindered, public organizing in this interview with Jonathan Smucker and Tim Nafziger. Jonathan Smucker has worked for over twenty-five years as a political organizer, campaigner, and strategist. He is...
Jun 12, 2025•45 min
Episode 4: “Ask an Indian” with Patty Krawec: Things White People Say In this episode of “Ask an Indian” Sarah and her guest, Patty Krawec, answer one big question: “What do white people say to you that you sometimes get impatient with?” Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe and Ukranian writer from Lac Seul First Nation. She is the author of the compelling book, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining our Future, released in 2022. She is also the cohost of the Medicin...
May 16, 2025•44 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri interview Allen Buck about his work within the United Methodist Church. Allen discusses the necessity of truth telling in building trust and relationships, and its importance in Repair work within the Church. Dr. William Allen Buck is a Cherokee (CNO) Native American Ordained Elder, currently serving at Great Spirit, the only United Methodist Native American Church in the Oregon Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is also the Director of th...
May 02, 2025•43 min
Learn about the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Oak Flat Accompaniment (COFA) team from two current volunteers, Fran Loberg and Tracy Howe. Learn about COFA’s role at Oak Flat, a sacred site that is under threat from a copper mining company, and what led Fran and Tracy to join in the work of protecting sacred land. Frances Loberg lives in the ancestral land of the Kalapuya Indians, now known as Salem, OR. She has three grown children, is a semi-retired lactation nurse, and has been involved in various move...
Apr 17, 2025•32 min
Sarah has been working with Leora Tadgerson for months on a national Episcopal committee working to tell the truth and repair the harms of church-led boarding schools. In this episode, we talk with Leora about her work as chair of the MW062 Executive Council Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy. Leora is a proud dual citizen of Gnoozhikaaning, Bay Mills and Wiikwemkong First Nations. She serves as Director of Reparations and Justice with the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michig...
Mar 24, 2025•42 min
Meghan is a socially-motivated millennial of European ancestry living in the Sugar Creek watershed — the unjustly ceded prairies and woodlands of many indigenous nations including Illini, Peoria, Miyyamia and Kiikapoi peoples, now known as Bloomington, Illinois. She works as a global renewable energy expert, helping wind farms get built and financed for more than a decade. She is a devoted cat owner, old house fixer, book reader, and the chair of the Coalition’s Investment Justice Working Group....
Sep 05, 2024•50 min
Arleth Martinez and Manny Villanueva are student leaders at Goshen College who have been instrumental in organizing the college and surrounding community to support Apache Stronghold in their attempt to protect their sacred lands at Oak Flat. In this episode, Arleth and Manny talk about how they got involved with the work to dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, how that connects with their faith, and why they are passionate about organizing. Sarah and Sheri wrote a book together! Find out more a...
Jul 19, 2024•47 min
We continue the conversation with Doe Hoyer and John Stoesz begun in our last episode. Please consider signing the "I Support the Sacred" petition (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/i-support-oak-flat) to show your support for Apache Stronghold's legal case to protect Oak Flat. Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of British and Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP, proposes to completely destroy this sacred site and contaminate the surrounding land, water and air. Preserving the religious li...
Jun 28, 2024•31 min
On our podcast today are Doe Hoyer and John Stoesz, two amazing organizers based in Minnesota who work with the Coalition. We can all learn so much from them about making justice happen in the real world, going beyond statements to actions – including returning land to Indigenous people, forming “repair communities” made up of (mostly) white settlers and participating in legislative campaigns. Through their attitudes and actions, they demonstrate what it means to show up in a good way in solidar...
Jun 14, 2024•31 min
Sarah and guest “answerers” Mark Charles (https://wirelesshogan.com) and Phil Fox (https://www.youtube.com/MrPhilFox)continue the conversation from the last episode. Questions include: Settlers are often told to seek relationship with local Native people. But what if Native folks don’t seem to want this? What does it really mean to build right relationship with Native people? I have grown up and lived most of my life with an understanding of human progress, that each successive generation lived ...
May 07, 2024•48 min
In this recurring episode, Sarah answers questions from listeners. This time, she is joined by Native friends Mark Charles (https://wirelesshogan.com) and Phil Fox (https://www.youtube.com/MrPhilFox). Questions include: How can you practice Christianity and your own Indigenous spirituality at the same time? Can you be true to yourself and your Indigenous identity and be a Christian at the same time? The Bible is pretty clear that men shouldn’t have long hair. What do you think about having long ...
Apr 26, 2024•45 min
In this episode, we talk to Patrick Bell, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon. His Diocese, which is a member of the Coalition’s Repair Network, has gone above and beyond in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. They started, first, with land rematriartion and then later came up with a repudiation statement. Patrick talks about how this “action-first” repudiation happened, what motivates him in this work, and why guilt isn’t an effective motivator for white people. Patrick was als...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min
In this episode, we talk to Basil Brave Heart and Hilary Giovale. This was an amazing conversation about forgiveness – forgiving our oppressors, how true healing and repair happen given the reality of historical harms, how white settlers need to forgive themselves as part of the work of reparation. Basil also shares deeply from his tradition in ways that Sarah and Sheri found very moving. Basil Brave Heart is an Oglala Lakota Elder who lives in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He is a Catholic boarding...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min
In this episode, we talk with Kaitlin Curtice, author, poet, storyteller, public speaker and an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation. Her most recent book is Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day. She also authored the 2020 award-winning book Native: Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God. Katilin also has a children’s book coming out this fall called Winter’s _Gifts: An Indigenous Celebration of Nature _– just in time for the holidays! Sarah and Sheri w...
Dec 15, 2023•43 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri reflect on the Richard Heinberg interview as it relates to the message of their new book So That We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis. (https://www.mennomedia.org/9781513812946/so-we-and-our-children-may-live/) We discuss why we are hopeful despite the polycrisis described in both our new book and in the interview with Richard. We also talk about why conspiracy theories like QAnon are onto something true and why it is im...
Dec 01, 2023•29 min
In this episode, we talk with Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our reliance on fossil fuels. He is the author of fourteen books, including some of the major works on society’s current energy and environmental sustainability crisis. His latest book is Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (https://power.postcarbon.org) (New Society, 2021). He is also Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, which is one of the main places Sheri goes to for ...
Nov 17, 2023•47 min
In anticipation of the Day of Prayer for Oak Flat on Nov. 4, we talk to Dwight Metzger, who has struggled with Apache Stronghold for decades to protect their sacred ancestral lands from destruction by a copper mine. In this interview, Dwight talks about the importance of the sacred sites of Oak Flat and Mount Graham for the San Carlos Apache and how he has been converted from the worldview of Western corporate environmentalism to one that follows the leadership of Indigenous people. For more inf...
Oct 27, 2023•44 min
We’re back after taking a break to write a book! (See below.) The first podcast of our new season features Patty Krawec, an Anishinaabe and Ukranian writer from Lac Seul First Nation. She is the author of the compelling book, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining our Future, released in 2022. She is also the cohost of the Medicine for the Resistance podcast and the cofounder of the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation (https://payyourrent.ca). We’re also honored that Pat...
Oct 13, 2023•57 min
In episode #7, we discussed the Indian Child Welfare Acts or ICWA, which is a major piece of civil rights legislation for Native Americans that has come under threat in the courts. This important law, passed in 1978, strengthened the legal rights of Indigenous families and specified that when Native children are removed from the care of their families, they will be placed in the care of extended family members, families in their own tribe, or Indigenous families from another tribe. On Nov. 9, 20...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min
In round two of this episode, Sarah answers more listener questions, including: I was in a meeting where someone used the phrase “off the rez,” and I noticed that you (Sarah) as the only Native person in the meeting were actually less offended by this phrase than other folks were. Can you say more about your response? How do white people know which "side" to take when Indigenous communities are divided around an issue? For example, some tribes, or people within them, are supportive of a tribe se...
Jul 19, 2022•40 min
In this recurring episode, Sarah answers questions from listeners. Questions include: What is the deal about dressing up like and Indian? Why is that offensive? What do Native people think about Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc.? Many white settlers look to Indigenous People for ideas about how to connect with the land and live more sustainably. But Indigenous people have been so assimilated – what wisdom do they actually have to offer the larger culture? We want your questions, especially th...
Jun 27, 2022•37 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about Sarah’s “100-year vision” for the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition. Sarah will begin as the full-time Executive Director of the Coalition on July 1. To contribute to Sarah’s salary campaign, please go here (https://dofdmenno.org/salary-campaign/). Every dollar you donate will be matched by Sheri’s congregation, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, through Indigenous Peoples Day of this year (October 10).
Jun 06, 2022•42 min
It’s almost summer and many of us will be traveling to the U.S.’s national parks for vacation and recreation. In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about how the formation of our national parks, the conservation movement that inspired their formation, and colonization have gone hand in hand. They also talk about how conservation could be decolonized. For more information: Link to The Atlantic article, “Return the National Parks to the Tribes” by David Treuer * https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...
May 23, 2022•41 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about Sarah’s experience of serving as chair of the Washington State Redistricting Commission and the impact of that redistricting process on Native people.
May 09, 2022•49 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk about why renewable energy and electric cars and green growth won’t save us – and how these things are linked to the same extractive, dominating worldview of the Doctrine of Discovery. For more information: * Link to Jason Hickel’s book Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World - https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more * Link to Jason Hickel’s article, “Degrowth is About Global Justice” - https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-01-07/degrowth-is-about-...
Apr 25, 2022•43 min
In this episode, Sarah and Sheri talk with activist, author and Dine leader Mark Charles, who wrote Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery with co-author Soong-Chan Rah. For two years, Mark led an Indigenous and settler church in Denver before moving to live on the Navajo reservation with his family for 11 years. While on the reservation, Mark became exposed to, began studying and eventually started teaching about the Doctrine of Discovery. But Creator a...
Apr 11, 2022•48 min
In this episode Sarah and Sheri talk about how Indigenous cosmologies have helped form Sarah's Christian faith and how we both have adopted a creation-centered approach to being an Anabaptist Christian.
Mar 29, 2022•32 min
Sarah and Sheri talk with Katerina Friesen. Katerina was the lead editor for an educational resource called “Stories of Repair” that provides case studies on how individuals and communities have engaged in restorative justice in response to the Doctrine of Discovery DofD). For anyone who has ever asked “But what do I do?” when hearing about the structural oppression caused by the DoD, this podcast – and the “Stories of Repair” booklet are for you. For more information: To learn more about “Stori...
Mar 14, 2022•41 min
In case the links from the previous episode didn't work here they are one more time. Sources: Chapter 7 of Sarah’s book This Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. As always, for more information please consult dofdmenno.org (dofdmenno.org) and Sarah’s book. To make a one-time donation to the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition to fund a full-time salary for Sarah, please go here (https://dofdmenno.org/donate/). Please designate your donation for...
Nov 12, 2021•3 min
In this episode, Sarah pulls back the curtain to reveal how colonization is continuing -- legally -- through economic development projects (including “sustainable” development), international aid and through our own financial investments. We also discuss what people of faith can do about this. Sources: Chapter 7 of Sarah’s book This Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. As always, for more information please consult dofdmenno.org (dofdmenno.org) and Sarah’s...
Nov 01, 2021•43 min
