Today, Professor Miller from Lewis & Clark Law School visited Colorado Law School to discuss his latest book, Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny. In his book, Professor Miller addresses the international legal principle called the Doctrine of Discovery and how that legal rule was used in American history and transformed into the American policy of Manifest Destiny. The Doctrine of Discovery provided that by law and divine intention European Christian countries gained power and legal rights over indigenous non-Christian peoples immediately upon their “discovery” by Europeans. Various European monarchs and their legal systems developed this principle to benefit their own countries. The Discovery Doctrine was then adopted into American colonial and state law and into the United States Constitution, and was then adopted by the federal legislative and executive branches, and finally by the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823. Johnson is still federal law today and the Doctrine of Discovery is still being applied to Indian individuals and the American Indian Nations notwithstanding its Eurocentric, religious, and racial underpinnings. Professor Miller’s book breaks new ground by proving from Thomas Jefferson’s own words that he clearly understood the Doctrine of Discovery and actively used this legal principle against American Indians and their tribal governments.His book also establishes another new idea that has apparently gone unnoticed until this time: Manifest Destiny developed out of the legal principles and elements of the Doctrine of Discovery, Jefferson’s ambitions, and the path breaking work of the Lewis & Clark expedition.Robert J. Miller is an Associate Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon where he teaches Indian law courses and Civil Procedure. He has also been a part-time tribal judge since 1995 for many Northwest tribes and is currently the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals for the Grand Ronde Tribe. Professor Miller became involved with his research on Lewis & Clark expedition and the Indian Nations in 2003 when he was appointed by his tribe to be its representative on the Circle of Tribal Advisors to the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. Professor Miller is a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.