Maine Watch with Jennifer Rooks explores the lack of access to dental care throughout Maine. Experts call it an epidemic. Also on this program, a man from Maine is on a mission to overturn the 500-year old Christian Doctrine of Discovery.

Tooth decay is the nation’s most common chronic disease among children—five times more common than asthma. Experts say Children, the elderly, and the working poor are disproportionately affected by the access to oral health care crisis in Maine.

In 2000, the Surgeon General issued a landmark report, “Oral Health in America,” which identified the “silent epidemic” of oral health diseases and called on oral health stakeholders to improve the nation’s oral health.

The second story in this program features John Dieffenbacher-Krall. He is a member of the Diocese of Maine Episcopal Committee on Indian Relations and the originator of the Episcopal Church resolution to repudiate the "Doctrine of Discovery.”

When Europeans began colonizing the Americas, they used the so-called "Doctrine of Discovery" to justify claiming the land for Christian governments, while the people already there were granted only the right of occupancy.

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. The doctrine was Chief Justice John Marshall's explanation of the way in which colonial powers laid claim to newly discovered lands. Under it, title to newly discovered lands lay with the government whose subjects discovered new territory. The doctrine has been primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial governments.