Broken Lands: A Podcast About Reparations and Honoring Our Treaties

Chase Iron Eyes returns home and shares his sharp intellect during a season of harvest and prayerperation for what comes next. Chase is a Native American activist, attorney, and citizen-member of the Lakota nation. Chase is the Executive Director of the Lakota People’s Law Project (Sacred Defense Fund) and publisher of the Native American news website Last Real Indians. Chase has appeared as a guest on numerous outlets including the Aubrey Marcus Podcast, CNN’s United Shades of America as well as VICE News. He holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and American Indian studies from the University of North Dakota, and a Juris Doctor of Law degree with an emphasis in Federal Indian Law from the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. Chase is focused on the cultivation and sharing of sacred knowledge systems.

When we are found by the faith of "all our relatives" (Lakota - Mitakuye Oyasin), then we are found to be recipients of the greatest gift ever given by our Creator, and that is the land on which we are still standing and walking. Father Robert Two Bulls, Oglala Lakota Episcopal Priest, is the youngest of 5 children from a large family (Lakota - tiospaye) of artists who call Pine Ridge IR and He Sapa, SD home. Fr. Two Bulls and his wife Ritchie Two Bulls focus their faith on one mission, Food Justice. The Two Bulls' faith family is First Nations Kitchen at All Saints Indian Mission in south Minneapolis.

Rev'd Robert Two Bulls 

Many of my interests and hobbies relate to my identity as a visual artist. I have an affinity for the exploration of the intersection of art and spirituality. Music is a great passion for me, leading me to begin learning, in recent years, how to play the electric guitar. I like being outdoors walking, whether it be in the city or country.

Come along, as Tom and Juno Biron help us imagine what pedagogical paradigm might be emerging on Broken Lands Trust.

1. ) When combining traditional teachings of oral cultures with modern educational systems, we find that more needs are met by involving elders in the learning process.
2. ) Where fathers reclaim and own their fathering, paternity leaves boys in a warm embrace rather than a cold shoulder.

Juno Biron is a tribal citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, currently living in Marquette, Michigan while enrolled in graduate studies at Northern Michigan University. Juno is pursuing an Interdisciplinary Studies (MIS) degree with intentions to pursue an Ed.S. (Education Specialist) degree, Doctor of Education (EdD) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education. Juno works to contribute to the growth and development of indigenous communities.

Tom’s career required ongoing learning, teaching, and administering skills in Tribal programming, policy-analysis, and community planning for future development.  His education has focused on program analysis, community development, and educational programming and teaching.  Now semi-retired, Tom continues to teach university level courses, one of which is History of Boarding Schools (NAS 315), and provides advisory service in historical case studies of Indigenous knowledge, Experience, and Education at Northern Michigan University.  Tom also has led and/or helped with Livestream broadcasting of my Tribe’s Constitution Reform effort (2012-2014) under the direction of the Tribal Chairmans Office.

Come along, as Tom and Juno Biron help us imagine what pedagogical paradigm might be emerging on Broken Lands Trust.

1. ) When combining traditional teachings of oral cultures with modern educational systems, we find that more needs are met by involving elders in the learning process.
2. ) Where fathers reclaim and own their fathering, paternity leaves boys in a warm embrace rather than a cold shoulder.

Juno Biron is a tribal citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, currently living in Marquette, Michigan while enrolled in graduate studies at Northern Michigan University. Juno is pursuing an Interdisciplinary Studies (MIS) degree with intentions to pursue an Ed.S. (Education Specialist) degree, Doctor of Education (EdD) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education. Juno works to contribute to the growth and development of indigenous communities.

Tom’s career required ongoing learning, teaching, and administering skills in Tribal programming, policy-analysis, and community planning for future development.  His education has focused on program analysis, community development, and educational programming and teaching.  Now semi-retired, Tom continues to teach university level courses, one of which is History of Boarding Schools (NAS 315), and provides advisory service in historical case studies of Indigenous knowledge, Experience, and Education at Northern Michigan University.  Tom also has led and/or helped with Livestream broadcasting of my Tribe’s Constitution Reform effort (2012-2014) under the direction of the Tribal Chairmans Office.

Dr. Abadian conducted research on several First Nations over 3 decades ago in order to offer an economists expertise. What transpired during her long visits effectively changed her world view so much, that she reenvisioned her world view to incorporate an elemental reciprocity. Come along again and listen to how one religious refugee from a small village in Iran, where she is from a long line of indigenous women who stayed on their land despite continuous persecutions was able to begin to overcome generational trauma.

Dr. Abadian conducted research on several First Nations over 3 decades ago in order to offer an economists expertise. What transpired during her long visits effectively changed her world view so much, that she reenvisioned her world view to incorporate an elemental reciprocity. Come along again and listen to how one religious refugee from a small village in Iran, where she is from a long line of indigenous women who stayed on their land despite continuous persecutions was able to begin to overcome generational trauma.

Mitch Bolo, a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, is a seasoned on-air personality with over 20 years of experience in radio broadcasting. He currently hosts “The Morning Strain” and “The Aftermath” on The Rockin Eagle 98.7/106.9 WGLI/WZAM and “The Lunch Special” on Eagle Country 105.7 WCUP-FM, two popular radio stations that serve a vast audience across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, parts of Wisconsin, and into Canada.

In addition to his radio work, Mitch is a skilled videographer and has worked on various projects, including the Walking Together: Finding Common Ground Traveling Exhibit. He lives in L'Anse with his partner, Kristine, and their four boys.

With his passion for storytelling and community engagement, Mitch continues to make a positive impact through his work in radio and film.

When you are a self-identifying white or Caucasian, there are many big assumptions afforded you in Eurocentric societies such as the US and Canada. To help us unpack these assumptions we have extended a special request to Hilary Giovale. As a self-identifying cisgender white female, Giovale has been on a long journey toward wholeness that allows her ancestral blood lines and land lines to both penetrate and inform her desired outcome, personal reparations. 

Giovale will share with us the importance of doing our own homework on tracking and tracing where our heritage comes from and through whom it passed down to us beneficiaries. This is a different paradigm for legacy planning, which starts with a commitment to repair. 

We encourage the aspiring ecology of communal wisdom practitioners who really want to go through a transpersonal change of heart to take a step forward on the journey toward making a personal reparations plan by visiting https://www.goodrelative.com.

Would you look how far we have come? Thirty episodes along this path Together Here on Broken Lands and now, there is time to pause for there is sufficient cause to raise up our hands in thanksgiving and gratitude for all of you. Miigwech, thank you for making this intention possible by pointing your attention this way and attuning to our mission, which is to continue to honor treaties and respect each relative for their unique contribution.

For the first time on this podcast we will be inviting our listeners and Patreon members to what we are lifting up as an "elder share."

Whenever we offer our listeners and members an "elder share," we kindly request that you pause, open and shift (ie., POS)

Pause - come to a still point

Open - turn all attention to heart center

Shift - breathe in and out of your heart center (4x)

This call to action will be approximately 60 seconds, which will lend our "elder share" the honor and respect we all really want to witness in our own families, communities, nations.

From Broken Lands Trust's strategic lens, we intend to allow an "elder share" to be of use to the emergence of communal wisdom and vital practices. In the sectors professional organizational growth and leadership development, BLT will always hold in confidence each "elder share" as a means to talk about premature and performative apologies that may form on a phenomenon we call trauma bonding. 

When there are no restorative justice actions before an apology is issued it can signify an existing paradoxical attachment. This strong emotional bond might keep our vulnerable elders, as survivors, in a state of learned helplessness and within a one-way emotional bond with the entity that is "the church," whomever that individual is within that leadership authority. 

It can change multiple times, and that elder survivor still, subconsciously, will want to be a "good Indian" for that person. Too often, white church leadership want to rush to apologies, forgiveness and reconciliation. 

BLT intends to hold this as counterfeit Christianity, and invite our listeners into confronting this difficult truth along with us, so that we may not forfeit a beautiful and harmonious future together here.

BLT intends for every community and learner who encounters this "elder share" to consider a commitment to restorative calls to action that are intertribally or tribally created, approved and continuously monitored.