The Discovery doctrine is a concept of public international law expounded by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions, most notably Johnson v. M'Intosh in 1823. Chief Justice John Marshall justified the way in which colonial powers laid claim to lands belonging to sovereign indigenous nations during the Age of Discovery. Under it, title to lands lay with the government whose subjects explored and occupied a territory whose inhabitants were not subjects of a European Christian monarch. The doctrine has been primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial governments.

The 1823 case was the result of collusive lawsuits where land speculators worked together to make claims to achieve a desired result. John Marshall explained the Court's reasoning. The supposedly inferior character of native cultures was a reason for the doctrine having been used.

The origins of the doctrine can be traced to Pope Nicholas V's issuance of the papal bull Romanus Pontifex in 1452. The bull allowed Portugal to claim and conquer lands in West Africa. Pope Alexander VI extended to Spain the right to conquer newly-found lands in 1493, with the papal bull Inter caetera, after Christopher Columbus had already begun doing so. Arguments between Portugal and Spain led to the Treaty of Tordesillas which clarified that only non-Christian lands could thus be taken, as well as drawing a line of demarcation to allocate potential discoveries between the two powers.

Oren R. Lyons, Jr. (b.1930) is a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Once a college lacrosse player, Lyons is now a recognized advocate of indigenous rights.

Oren Lyons, Jr. was born in 1930 and raised in the culture and practices of the Iroquois on the Seneca and Onondaga reservations in Upstate New York.

Lyons served in the United States Army. He received an athletic scholarships to Syracuse University, where he was awarded the Orange Key for his academic and athletic accomplishments. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 1958. A lifelong lacrosse player, Oren was an All-American at Syracuse, where the Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse went undefeated during his graduating year. After graduation, Lyons played for several teams, including the New York Lacrosse Club (1959–1965), the New Jersey Lacrosse Club (1966–1970), and the Onondaga Athletic Club (1970–1972).

Upon leaving Syracuse, Lyons pursued a career in commercial art in New York City, becoming the art and planning director of Norcross Greeting Cards. Outside of work, Lyons exhibited his own paintings during this time^{[citation needed]}. In 1970, Lyons returned to Onondaga to be closer to his cultural heritage^{[original research?]}. In recognition of his contributions over many years as a teacher of undergraduate and graduate students in the University at Buffalo, Dr. Lyons is listed as SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor Emeritus of American Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as "indigenous" according to one of the various definitions of the term, though there is no universally accepted definition.

In the late twentieth century, the term began to be used primarily to refer to ethnic groups that have historical ties to groups that existed in a territory prior to colonization or formation of a nation state, and which normally preserve a degree of cultural and political separation from the mainstream culture and political system of the nation state within the border of which the indigenous group is located. The political sense of the term defines these groups as particularly vulnerable to exploitation and oppression by nation states. As a result, a special set of political rights in accordance with international law have been set forth by international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. The United Nations have issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and natural resources. Depending on which precise definition of "indigenous people" used, and on the census, estimates of a world total population of Indigenous people range from 220 million Indigenous peoples in 1997 to 350 million in 2004.

Jeannette Armstrong (born 1948) is an Okanagan Canadian author, educator, artist, and activist. She was born and grew up on the Penticton Indian reserve in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Armstrong has lived on the Penticton Indian Reserve for most of her life and has raised her two children there.

Armstrong’s 1985 work Slash is considered the first novel by a Native woman in Canada. Armstrong is the grandniece of Mourning Dove, who is regarded as one of the earliest Native American woman novelists for her 1927 work Cogewea, the Half-Blood.

Armstrong is best known for her involvement with the En’owkin Centre, writing, and perspectives on subjects such as creativity, education, ecology, and Indigenous rights.

While growing up on the Penticton Indian Reserve, Armstrong received a formal education at a one-room school on the reserve as well as a traditional Okanagan education from her family and Elders. Armstrong’s customary education enabled her to learn the Okanagan language and she remains a fluent speaker of both Okanagan and English today. For many years since her childhood, Armstrong has studied traditional Okanagan teachings and practiced traditional ways under the direction of Elders.

Christopher Michael Peters (born January 28, 1972 in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He played during six seasons at the major league level for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos. He was drafted by the Pirates in the 37th round of the 1993 amateur draft. Peters played his first professional season with their Class A (Short Season) Welland Pirates in 1993, and his last season with the independent Atlantic League's Pennsylvania Road Warriors, Newark Bears, and Camden Riversharks in 2003. He played his last affiliated season in 2002 for the Detroit Tigers' Double-A Erie Seawolves.