Hóčhoka Podcast

Filmmaker George Lucas of Star Wars fame addressed teachers with these words, “You have the most important job of anyone today. Our kids need you to advocate for their futures.” During our last episode, we learned how vital the Lakota language is for the future of our students. Today, we learn how two women at St. Joseph’s are advocating for them.

Lakota elder and teacher Dottie LeBeau once noted, “Losing the language means losing the culture. We need to know who we are because it makes a difference in who we are and who our children are.” If language is the carrier of culture, what does this mean for the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, whose Native speakers now number in mere hundreds? Let’s talk about it.

Mother Teresa is often quoted, "I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things." That is the great benefit of collaboration, which shapes much of the work we do at St. Joseph’s. Let’s learn more about the school’s relationship with the University of Notre Dame.

Why are three college-age women traveling throughout the Indian Country of the Northern Plains distributing books? Let’s find out.

How is it that a former U. S. Marine from Texas with a Poly-Sci major finds himself deeply involved in the spiritual and administrative life of St. Joseph’s Indian School? Let’s talk with Fr. Greg Schill, SCJ, and learn all about it.

Leadership is a role performed uniquely by the person who holds the role. At St. Joseph’s Indian School, we are experiencing a transition in leadership that brings a new title and a new face. Let’s get to know this person!

President Ronald Regan and Vice President George W. Bush begin their second term in office. Coke releases new-and-improved New Coke, meeting so much opposition that old Coke is back on the shelves in three months. The Unabomber is on the loose. “Back to the Future” opens in theaters across America, and Mike and Kim Tyrell arrive for their first year as houseparents at St. Joseph’s Indian School. T...

Don't miss Hóčhoka Season 8 when: Former President, Mike Tyrell, new CEO, Jennifer Renner-Meyer, and incoming President, Fr. Greg Schill, SCJ, set the vision for the future Chris Hoklotubbe and Dr. Damian Costello join us once again to enrich the Christian perspective with Indigenous wisdom. Three alumni from different eras are with us “talking thiyóšpaye.” We learn about the American Indian Catho...

"Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air." St. Joseph’s alum Hope McCloskey favors this quote by Henry Grunwald, former editor in chief of Time, Inc. Let’s find out what the noise is all about.

Our 7th Graders head out on their annual visit to sites sacred to their culture this week. During the school’s 2022 Seventh Grade Cultural Trip, as the boy’s group reached the summit of Matȟó Pahá, their pleasant ascent became shrouded in fog and they could not see ten feet in front of them. They were pelted with sleet and snow. What can Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk teach us about this event?

Today we bear profound grief on the wings of deep gratitude as we invite you to join in remembering our friend Joseph Marshall III.

Love is medicine, learning from each other is a precious practice and positive change is possible says successful Indigenous author, speaker and consultant Monique Gray Smith. That sounds like good medicine. Let’s learn more.

It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will have dreams, Your young men will see visions,” says the prophet Joel. “What does it mean for Christians to embrace and honor the dreams and visions given to us by Creator?” asks Dr. Chris Hoklotubbe. Let’s find out!

Some critics of Christianity find a connection between a Christian perspective that places humankind over and other than the created world and the shaky ecological health of our planet. Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk and the Ghost Dance tradition say, “Not so quick.” Let's learn from Dr. Damian Costello.

What can the former Chaplain and Director of St. Joseph’s Indian School tell us about the Native American education that takes place here when we look back, at the present and ahead to the future?

What do Star Trek, the Chicago White Socks and social activist Dorothy Day have in common? We’re about to find out as we talk with Fr. Steve Huffstetter, SCJ.

“Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging – to a family, to a people, and to the land,” says Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatami botanist and author of “Braiding Sweetgrass.” Today we turn to how First Nations Christians relate to their cultural traditions through ceremony. Why is this important? Let's learn with Dr. Chris Hoklotubbe

In 2013, Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer published “Braiding Sweetgrass.” It took seven years for the book to inch its way up the New York Times bestseller list, but since then, this book of Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teaching of plants has been hard to keep in stock. Let’s talk to Monique Gray Smith whose adaptation of the book, “Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults,” makes thi...

Native American elders advise, “Go among the standing people.” This is a reminder that plants can be our caretakers, healers, teachers, and guides. There are intelligences other than our own. Imagine how less lonely the world would be if we knew and believed that we didn’t have to figure everything out by ourselves.

“You are dust and unto dust you shall return,” admonishes the Christian Church each Ash Wednesday. What happens not only to the fear factor but also to our understanding of what it is to be human when we look at our relationship to creation through an indigenous lens? Let's talk with Dr. Chris Hoklotubbe. 

To some, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, who chose the pen name Zitkala-Šá, might be a study in contradictions. How did the woman who authored “Why I am a Pagan” also embrace Catholicism? Who better to help us explore the topic than Dr. Damian Costello?

“My country! ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty, My pleas I bring. Land where OUR fathers died, Whose offspring are denied, The franchise given wide, Hark while I sing.” This stirring takeoff on Samuel Francis Smith’s “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” begins our conversation on the final two decades of the life of Zitkala-Šá.

The 2024 Zitkala-Šá Quarter is the 15th coin in the American Women Quarters Program. Who is this woman minted by the United States Treasury, and why does that matter to all of us?

What is a Buffalo Harvest and what is the significance of the buffalo to the Lakota people? Let’s learn from two people who recently participated in a harvest.

Who are the wakȟáŋheža? Lakota children are called by this word that means “little sacred ones.” Significantly, the Indigenous have known all along what new science is proving: There is great power in the spiritual life of children. Let’s explore the topic with Dr. Damian Costello and learn what it means for parents and educators everywhere.