Tiokasin Ghosthorse at Communion with the Wild

Tiokasin Ghosthorse on Indigenous Language, Disconnection, and Returning...

THINK: Don't Believe - John Trudell 

The positive principles at the roots of our resistance by Paul Cudenec

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“First Voices Radio’s” Final Broadcast will be Sunday, July 6, 2025

 “First Voices Radio’s” Final Broadcast will be Sunday, July 6, 2025

 

Internationally-syndicated weekly all-Native hosted and all-Native produced radio program has been on the air for 33 years

(Stone Ridge, N.Y, July 3, 2025) — “First Voices Radio” will have its final broadcast on Sunday, July 6, 2025.  The program, which was founded in 1992 by Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Cheyenne River Lakota) has explored global topics and issues of critical importance to the preservation and protection of Mother Earth presented in the voices and from the perspective of the original peoples of the world. 

 

“First Voices Radio” has been airing weekly for the past 33 years and has most recently been heard on Sundays from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM in Kingston, New York. The final episode will air on Radio Kingston and will stream live at https://radiokingston.org/.

 

“First Voices Radio” — “formerly First Voices Indigenous Radio” — was the first Indigenous radio program in the northeastern U.S. With more than 1 million annual online hits to its website, the program has become known for bringing to the airwaves the experiences, perspectives and struggles of Indigenous peoples worldwide whose exclusion from mainstream, progressive and alternative media is deleterious to the whole of humanity.

 

The program’s Host, Executive Producer and Founder Tiokasin Ghosthorse is from the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation in South Dakota and the bands of Itazipco-Mnicoujou and Oglala. He is an author, activist and accomplished musician of the Lakota flute. Tiokasin has been described as “a spiritual agitator, natural rights organizer, Indigenous thinking process educator and a community activator.” Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe) has been the show’s producer since 2012.

 

“First Voices Radio” has gone through several program name changes over the years, including: “Primal Minds,” “Exposing the Apologetic Predator,” “Skywaves” and “First Voices Indigenous Radio.” The show’s format has included news pertinent to Native peoples and their struggles, rare monologues and meaningful conversations with some of the most important Native and non-Native minds of our time.

 

“Politics for the Lakota is spiritual and is not separate from the rest of life; and it is this worldview that puts Mother Earth at the center of everything,” says Tiokasin. “This is what I have tried to do with this radio program and to never become bigger than the message, as I like to say — I am merely the messenger,” says Tiokasin. “Above all, “First Voices Radio” has been about the importance of living in relativity and, most importantly, with Mother Earth. The guests who appear on the show have all been individuals who understand this central way of thinking and being.”

 

“Over the years, we’ve asked our guests with great respect to do the honor of coming on the program to offer their knowledge, wisdom and experience — a knowledge that has been handed down over hundreds of thousands of years,” says Tiokasin. “It is a responsibility we’ve always taken very seriously on “First Voices Radio. “We know it is with great urgency that we asked these voices to be shared during these times of change. We’ve offered listeners a perspective they have been missing for far too long — the first voices of the Indigenous peoples — the "voices" that America has tried to silence for more than 500 years.”

“It’s been a wonderful three-plus decades of the show with participation from many important voices from Turtle Island and beyond,” says Tiokasin. “But with anything that tells the truth about what’s happened to the world’s Indigenous peoples over the centuries, we’ve also occasionally witnessed the occasional gnashing of teeth, complaints and even death threats from time to time.” 

 

“However, throughout the years we’ve kept going despite any human roadblocks that have tried to place themselves in our way,” says Tiokasin. “I've always made sure that our guests were not censored. And I want to express special thanks to all of our beautiful listeners, who have stuck with us all of these years. Indigenous knowledge empowers through inclusion, by teaching responsibility of choices and contributing to the protection of Mother Earth.”

Over the years, “First Voices Radio” has been based at KAOS 89.3, Olympia, Washington (where it was founded); WBAI 99.5 FM, New York City; WPKN 89.5 FM. Bridgeport, Connecticut; WIOX 91.3, Roxbury, New York and, most recently, at Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM in Kingston, New York. “I’ve been honored and grateful that “First Voices Radio” has found welcoming homes at all of these great radio stations that have been so receptive to our format and messages,” says Tiokasin.

 

“First Voices Radio” has been internationally syndicated on 110+ community, public and commercial radio stations in 24 states in the U.S. and four Canadian provinces, including: Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The program is heard on three stations in Germany. Shows have also been available as podcasts on several listening platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

 

“First Voices Radio” is retiring but I am not,” says Tiokasin. “Rather, I’m transitioning, moving into these dimensions that are still offered in life.” Tiokasin’s upcoming book, “Earth Mind,” is co-authored with Robert Toth and Dr. John Briggs. “In writing this book we have made every effort to respect our readers by not telling them what actions to take if they agree with us on the importance of holocentric consciousness to life on Earth. Here, we propose no new ideology, philosophy or religion — no “to do” list of steps in order to establish a new Earth Mind-centered culture and fix the problems created by modern humans’ aggressively anthropocentric approach to pretty much everything. We think that proposing “solutions” will only lead people back into more anthropocentric thinking, falling into the trap of trying to fix the harm created by that thinking by applying more of it. Proposing solutions is comforting but it hasn’t worked very well. We need to go deeper.”

For listeners who want to keep up with Tiokasin, he can be found on Facebook (search Tiokasin Ghosthorse; he has two pages), Instagram, Patreon and on the “First Voices Radio” website (where past shows on many topics can be found). Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. He can also be contacted by email at tiokasin@gmail.com.

SHOW ARCHIVE: https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org./programs 

 *** See firstvoicesindigenousradio.org.

👇PLEASE READ TIOKASIN: 

“Mother Earth Won’t Lie to Us”

Doing what’s required now …

It’s not enough anymore to “do our best.” We have to do what’s required – a new way of thinking. Some people are ready for this. For others, I don’t think showing them the data will matter. You have to change the heart. If you can do that, you can change the body and the way people think about nature. It’s not sentimentalism. The earth moves for them.

https://reflections.yale.edu/article/crucified-creation-green-faith-rising/mother-earth-wont-lie-us 

Our Indigenous Roots

 This is a long post so please click READ MORE

This map shows you which Indigenous lands you’re living on.

 Click here to access it.

BY Rob Brezsny (SUBSTACK)

Our Indigenous Roots

Even if our forebears arrived in what we now call Americas in the 1600s, and our predecessors have lived on the continent for the last 14 generations, we can all trace our ancestry back to some group of Indigenous people.

Maybe your people were Celts who lived in what’s now Austria during the ninth century BCE. Or perhaps your biological line was Jewish Egyptian three millennia ago, or Chinese as far back as the ancient Xia Dynasty, or Mycenaean in the Aegean area of what we now call Greece circa 3200 BCE.

One fact is indisputable: In a literal sense, every one of us has Indigenous roots. At some point, our ancestors fit the official definition of Indigenous: “a culturally distinct ethnic group that is native to a particular place.”

Let’s go further. Mythologist and storyteller Michael Meade tells us that whether or not we know our own Indigenous past, we can and should strive to be in close touch with our inner Indigenous person.

What does that mean? Meade says we can benefit from seeing the world through an Indigenous perspective, with a reverence for nature and receptivity to the teachings available to us from the non-human intelligences of animals and plants as well as the spiritual realm.

Here’s the sticky part. Even if we have not personally participated in damaging the Indigenous cultures of the land we now live on, our destinies are defined and shaped by the fact that those cultures were damaged. Everything we do is built on the results of the damage.

When most of our fellow Americans came of age, our education included little about the calamity committed against the native people. If the evidence for the desecration appeared in our history textbooks, it was dealt with cursorily. We grew up with a carefully cultivated amnesia about the tragic origins of the United States. The story of African American slavery was almost equally suppressed.

Our hypothesis is that this amnesia, this failure to fully acknowledge the roots of our civilization, dampens our ability to be, as Michael Meade recommends, in close touch with our own inner Indigenous person.

We may not feel guilt, remorse, and shame on a conscious level. But like all suppressed emotions, they churn and burn in our deep psyches, alienating us from the Indigenous perspective we all need.

And yes, we need that perspective if we hope to reverse the juggernaut of humanity’s ecocidal ways—and preserve our earthly paradise for the generations to come after us.

On a personal level, we need a full, generous communion with our inner Indigenous person because it has tremendous power to keep us grounded. It potentially provides us with essential support in our lifelong labor to ensure our mind is anchored in earthy practicality.

LISTEN: "First Voices Radio" - All-Native Hosted, All-Native Produced Radio Kingston

My interview with Tiokasin Ghosthorse:  

It is now ARCHIVED:  https://radiokingston.org/

"First Voices Radio" : All-Native Hosted, All-Native Produced... Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 FM / 107.9 FM

                                 CLICK👉:   https://radiokingston.org/

                                    www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org
                                 

                                    First Voices Radio/Apple Podcasts

 

                                    Facebook

THE COUNT 2024

We discuss the new book ALMOST DEAD INDIANS and THE COUNT 2024. 

WE CHOOSE THE WAY OF EARTH

 The Kindle ebook ($2.99) is on Amazon now...

LINK:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR5KB27Y

Annamarie Hill on the Mantyh Lab and Alzheimers Research in the Native Community

 

12/24/25 - Annamarie Hill (Repeat) First Voices Radio

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...we're revisiting a conversation between Tiokasin Ghosthorse and Annamarie Hill. Annamarie is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Nation located in northwestern Minnesota. It was while she was studying Music and Business at a private women’s college in the southern part of the state that she realized the impact of inhumane treatment put upon her father and family and became determined to somehow help right the wrongs that had devastated American Indian communities.  After graduation, Annamarie moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul Metropolitan area and began a career in the state legislature and government for more than a decade before taking the role of State Government Affairs Director for Red Lake.

After lobbying for Red Lake Nation for several years, Annamarie went on to lead the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council as Executive Director for a decade.  It was during this time that the highly regarded and award-winning “Why Treaties Matter” exhibit and Dakota Ojibwe Language Revitalization program were developed. Annamarie currently works for the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Duluth Campus as the Strategy and Outreach Director.  Annamarie is a part of the Mantyh Lab, a research team led by Neurologist and Dementia Specialist Dr. William Mantyh.  The NIH- funded research project is to examine the APOE gene’s relationship with Alzheimer’s disease in the Native population.  Annamarie remains active in the lobbying and advocating world for her people and provides professional and executive coaching and mentoring to many.

Annamarie has a bachelor’s degree in music and business administration from The College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in Tribal Administration and Governance from the University of Minnesota/Duluth. 

Production Credits: Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer Karen Ramirez (Maya), Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor Kevin Richardson, Podcast Editor

AKANTU INTELLIGENCE 

Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuintelligence.org to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse