First Voices Radio

In this episode of "First Voices Radio," Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse remembers Andre Vltchek.

September 22 marked one year since First Voices Radio friend Andre's untimely death in Istanbul, Turkey. Tiokasin remembers his immense contributions: many books of non-fiction and fiction; documentary films; hundreds of essays and media appearances.

We got to know Andre on "First Voices Radio" in early 2017 and from that time on, he became a frequent and generous guest, always making time to come on our show and reporting to us on the issues, and the life and death situations of the worlds forgotten, poor and oppressed peoples, including, of course, the worlds Indigenous peoples.

Andre's new book, published today on his first-year remembrance by Badak Merah publishers in Jakarta Indonesia, is titled Defend China 2: Why the West is so Keen to Slander China. It is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle in English, Russian and Chinese (simplified and traditional).

In the second segment, Tiokasin Ghosthorse speaks with returning guest Zumila Wobaga, or Charmaine White Face. She is Oglala Tituwan Oceti Sakowin. Zumila is a great-grandmother, scientist, and writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Tiokasin and Zumila will talk about her recent essay, "Kimkimila Wi (The Butterfly Sun)," discussing this special time of year, a time that we need to be seeking balance in our lives. Google her to find more of her writings.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Warrior
Artist: Xavier Rudd and the United Nations
CD: Nanna
Label: Nettwerk
Listen Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xPxbfWta4Q
(00:07:12)

3. Song Title: 4R Ancestors
Artist: Keith Secola
CD: Wild Band of Indians (1996)
Label: Normal
(00:52:20)

4. Song Title: Way Down
Artist: Boozoo Bajou feat. Ben Weaver
CD: Dust My Broom (2005)
Label: !K7 Records
(00:56:30)

This week, Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse talks with linda manyguns about a recent article, "Calgary professor won't use capital letters unless it's to acknowledge Indigenous peoples."

dr. linda manyguns is a Blackfoot woman born on the tsutina nation, now registered at siksika. she is the grandmother to five children.

linda grew up in europe as an airforce brat. in her early years she worked as a high steel construction worker, a red seal chef, and was a union leader for cupe (which is the canadian union of public employees).

linda has 4 degrees: (b.a. in sociology; m.a. in sociology; llb, university of ottawa and a ph.d. in Indigenous philosophy from trent university.

at law school, fellow students nominated linda for the karim green spon award for outstanding achievement. she worked at the Indian lands claims commission in Ottawa.

linda was a professor for over ten years and she is now the associate vice president of Indigenization and decolonization at mount royal university in calgary, alberta. read the article from ctv here: https://bit.ly/3nxTfbh.

In the second segment, we hear "It's Time to Get Ready" from Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Wolf Clan, Onondaga Nation. We will hear, "It's Time to Get Ready," about the "ignored warnings and how we are living in the time of a 200 year-old prophecy. It will get worse before it gets better." Get ready. Link to YouTube video (06:15): https://youtu.be/EzUpOpNR6aE.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Surefire (radio)
Artist: Wilderado
CD: Release later 2021
Label: See above
Listen Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xPxbfWta4Q
(00:33:45; 00:55:30)

3. Song Title: Feels Like Summer
Artist: Donald Glover (Childish Gambino)
CD: Summer Pack (2018)
Label: Wolf+Rothstein/Liberator Music
(00:46:16)

4. Song Title: What's Going On (cover)
Artist: Los Lobos
CD: Just Another Band from East L.A. - A Collection (1993)
Label: Slash Records
(00:50:50)

In the first segment, Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse talks with Dylan Shields about his experience on the recent Whitestone Hill Memorial Horseback Ride with a group from a number of Dakota and Lakota nations. Dylan, a filmmaker, grew up on the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada among the Paiute and Shoshone people.

They rode across the northern Plains from Crow Creek, South Dakota to Whitestone Hill State Historic Site, 23 miles southeast of Kulm, Dickey County, North Dakota. They arrived on September 3.

This is the second of four planned Rides held in remembrance of ancestors who were at Whitestone on September 3-5,1863, when white soldiers led by General Alfred Sully attacked a tipi camp of Yanktonai, Dakota, Hunkpapa Lakota and Blackfeet (Sihasapa Lakota) as part of a military mission to punish participants of the Dakota War of 1862. Between 100 and 300 Native men, women and children were massacred or captured.

In the second segment, we hear "My Last Warning," featuring Chief Oren Lyons, Wolf Clan, Onondaga Nation. Listen here: https://youtu.be/po6urawfqzQ.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Warrior
Artist: Xavier Rudd and the United Nation
CD: Nanna
Label: Nettwerk
(00:39:00; 00:52:05)

This week, Tiokasin welcomes Dr. Rosita Worl back to "First Voices Radio." Dr. Rosita Worl is President of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Her Tlingit names are Yeidiklasókw and Kaaháni, is Tlingit, Ch'áak' (Eagle) moiety of the Shangukeidí­ (Thunderbird) Clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered From the Sun) in Klukwan.

She is an anthropologist and for many years served as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast. Dr.Worl has a Ph.D. and a M.S. in Anthropology from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Alaska Methodist University. She also holds an honorary doctor of sciences degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Dr. Worl has received many honors and works with several different Native organizations. She is an accomplished lecturer and author.

Tiokasin and Dr. Worl will be discussing a recent announcement from the Sealaska Heritage Institute, titled: "Sealaska Heritage Institute Receives Grant to Document Traditional Protocols for Removal of Grief: Institute to Work With Traditional Scholars, Clan Leaders to Produce Book."

In the second half-hour, Tiokasin discusses critical race theory with friend and regular guest Ukumbwa Sauti. This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Ukumbwa Sauti is an initiated Elder in the Dagara tradition from Burkina Faso in West Africa. He is a diviner, numerologist, and spiritual counselor. He is a Producer and Partner at Moja Mediaworks, developing the World Ancestor Concert, and facilitating Social Justice workshop experiences along with forwarding progressive messaging through online merchandising.

Ukumbwa presents discussions and workshops through the Men's Work initiative, engaging patriarchy and men's violence against women and the LGBTQ community. He has taught Cultural Media Studies and Video Production for 17 years in higher education; and has been active in the Pan-African movement, Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism work and the Occupy/Decolonize to Liberate movements. Ukumbwa has presented at spiritual conferences and political events in the New England region, California and Barbados; and has been active in creating ritual work in Boston, New York and Toronto.

He can be reached for bookings and consultation on Facebook, Twitter and email at [email protected]. Find his current work at www.worldancestorconcert.com,, on Facebook and other Global Media Network platforms.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

First Voices Radio Theme:
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.

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Beg Steal or Borrow
Artist: Ray Montagne and the Pariah Dogs
CD: God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise (2010)
Label: RCA Records
(00:26:58; 00:58:05)

This week on "First Voices Radio, Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse welcomes two guests: Debra Utacia Krol and Ukumbwa Sauti.

Debra Utacia Krol is an Indigenous affairs reporter at the Arizona Republic. She is a citizen of the Xolon Salinan Tribe. Debra's current coverage area - which is supported by the Catena Foundation and the Water Funder Initiative - is the intersection of climate, culture and commerce. Debra has more than two decades of expertise in reporting on Native issues for publications large and small, with an emphasis on environmental and science issues, and has been a contributor to two books on Native traditions.

In this segment, Debra and Tiokasin discuss a recent article that she wrote for the Arizona Republic, "Blythe Intaglios: Tribes work to protect 'sleeping giants' of the desert." Find it at: https://bit.ly/2XC3AYz

In the second segment Tiokasin discusses critical race theory with friend and regular guest Ukumbwa Sauti. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series that will continue next week. Ukumbwa Sauti is an initiated Elder in the Dagara tradition from Burkina Faso in West Africa. He is a diviner, numerologist, and spiritual counselor. He is a Producer and Partner at Moja Mediaworks, developing the World Ancestor Concert, and facilitating Social Justice workshop experiences along with forwarding progressive messaging through online merchandising.

Ukumbwa presents discussions and workshops through the Men's Work initiative, engaging patriarchy and men's violence against women and the LGBTQ community. He has taught Cultural Media Studies and Video Production for 17 years in higher education; and has been active in the Pan-African movement, Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism work and the Occupy/Decolonize to Liberate movements. Ukumbwa has presented at spiritual conferences and political events in the New England region, California and Barbados; and has been active in creating ritual work in Boston, New York and Toronto.

He can be reached for bookings and consultation on Facebook, Twitter and email at [email protected]. Find his current work at www.worldancestorconcert.com,, on Facebook and other Global Media Network platforms.

Production Credits;
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Founder, Executive Producer and Host, First Voices Radio
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)
Artist: Lakou Mizik and Joseph Ray
CD: Leave The Bones (2021)
Label: Anjunadeep
(00:29:27; 00:55:0)

This week on a special repeat episode of "First Voices Radio, Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse welcomes Alnoor Ladha. Alnoor's work focuses on the intersection of political organizing, systems thinking and narrative work. 

He was the co-founder and Executive Director of The Rules (TR), a global network of activists, organizers, designers, coders, researchers, writers and others focused on changing the rules that create inequality, poverty and climate change. TR started in 2012 as a time-bound project and an experiment in anarchist organizational design, exploring new ways of how to work, play and make trouble together. 

Alnoor comes from a Sufi lineage and explores/writes about the intersection between politics and spirituality in troubled times.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
CD: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Norupo
Artist: Heilung
CD: Futha (2019)
Label: Season of Mist
(00:54:23)

This week, Tiokasin welcomes back Dr. Paulette Steeves (Cree-Métis). Dr. Paulette Steeves was born in Whitehorse Yukon Territories and grew up in Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. She is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and a Canada Research Chair in Healing and Reconciliation. Dr. Steeves holds an adjunct faculty position at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.

Her research focus is on the Pleistocene history of the Western Hemisphere, reclaiming and rewriting Indigenous histories and healing and reconciliation. In her research Dr. Steeves argues that Indigenous peoples were present in the Western Hemisphere as early as 100,000 years ago, and possibly much earlier.  Dr. Steeves argues that counter stories to Western narratives of Indigenous histories address issues that remain critical to Indigenous people — sovereignty, self-determination, healing and reconciliation.

She has stated that rewriting and un-erasing Indigenous histories becomes a part of healing and reconciliation transforming public consciousness and confronting and challenging racism. Long-standing academic denial of the deep Indigenous fosters racism and discrimination among the general or Settler population.Re-writing Indigenous histories, framed through Indigenous knowledge, will create discussions that counter racism and discrimination.

Dr. Steeve’s first book The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Americas was published July 1, 2021 by The University of Nebraska Press.

Production Credits:

Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer

Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:

1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)

Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters

CD: Tahi (1993)

Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)

(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Something has to Change

Artist: Rodney Crowell

CD: Triage (2021)

Label: RC1

(00:56:23)

Update on Thacker Pass with guest Will Falk. Will and Max Wilbert (another of our frequent guests), launched an occupation of a proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada in January of this year.

Will is a biophilic writer, lawyer and the author of “How Dams Fall: Stories the Colorado River Told Me,” published by Homebound Publications. The book describes his relationship with the Colorado River through his involvement in the first-ever American federal lawsuit seeking rights for a major ecosystem, the Colorado River. 

Will has published numerous articles and essays through Earth Island Journal, the Dark Mountain Project, CounterPunch, and many others. For more information about Will, visit willfalk.org.

 To keep up with the news about Thacker Pass, check out the website at protectthackerpass.org and Protect Thacker Pass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Production Credits:

Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer

Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:

1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)

Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters

CD: Tahi (1993)

Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)

(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: What I’ve Seen

Artist: Michael Franti and Spearhead

CD: Yell Fire! (2006)

Label: ANTI- and Liberation Records

(00:29:10)

3. Song Title: They’re Mining Us

Artist: John Trudell

CD: DNA Descendant Now Ancestor  (2001)

Label: Effective Records

(00:33:53)

4. Song Title: 500 Years

Artist: Rhonda Head

CD: Kisahkihitan (2019)

Label: Rhonda Head

(00:37:30)

5. Song Title: Who Discovered America

Artist: Ozomatli 

CD: Street Signs (2004)

Label: Real World/Concord

(00:41:11)

6. Song Title: Earth Was Mother

Artist: John Trudell

CD: DNA Descendant Now Ancestor (2001)

Label: Effective Records

(00:45:39)

7. Song Title: In the Anthropocene

Artist: Nick Mulvey

CD: N/A - released as a single in October 2019

Label: N/A. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYnaQIvBRAE

(00:55:10)

In this special repeat edition, Martín Prechtel is a leading thinker, writer and teacher in the search for the Indigenous soul in all people. He is a dedicated student of eloquence, history, language and an ongoing fresh approach.

In his native New Mexico, Martín teaches at his international school Bolad’s Kitchen, a hands-on historical and spiritual immersion into language, music, ritual, farming, cooking, smithing, natural colors, architecture, animal raising, clothing, tools, grief and humor to help people from many lands, cultures and backgrounds to remember and retain the majesty of their diverse origins while cultivating the flowering of integral culture in the present to grow a time of hope beyond our own.

Martín’s books include: “Secrets of the Talking Jaguar”; “Long Life, Honey in the Heart”: “The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun”; “Stealing Benefacio’s Roses”; “The Unlikely Peace of Cuchumaquic” and “The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise.” His latest book, “Rescuing the Light: Quotes from the Oral Teachings of Martín Prechtel” was published on June 8, 2021. More about Martín can be found at https://www.martinprechtel.com/

Production Credits:

Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer

Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:

1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)

Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters

CD: Tahi (1993)

Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)

(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: Above the Bones

Artist: Mishka

CD: Above the Bones (2009)

Label: Mishka Music

(00:53:10) 

As we’ve reported before on “First Voices Radio,” since April 28, 2021, tens of thousands of Colombians have been protesting in the streets in just about every part of the country. They’ve been participating in a months-long National Strike against the government, demanding widespread change in its social economic program, its response to the COVID pandemic, and respect for the defense of human rights. From the outset, the Colombian State tried to block the protests, first through a court order forbidding the protests in Bogotá. Then, as Colombians refused to obey this order, security forces responded with violence. The results have been alarming. While the massive scale of the protests have died down considerably in recent weeks, Colombian human rights groups are demanding justice for the victims of what they’re calling state-sponsored repression. With that in mind, an international fact-finding mission is currently in Colombia to investigate some of these developments throughout the country. Hofstra University professor Mario Murillo is accompanying the mission, and he joins us now from Bogotá. Mario is professor of Journalism and Latin American studies at Hofstra and the Vice Dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication. Mario has written about and reported on Colombia for many years and is a regular guest and collaborator with “First Voices Radio.”

Our returning guest in the second segment is Max Wilbert. In January, Max launched an occupation of a proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada with another of our frequent guests and commentators, Will Falk. Max is a writer, organizer and wilderness guide, and has been part of grassroots political work for nearly 20 years. He is an author and his essays have been published many places, including CounterPunch and Dissident Voice. His latest book is “Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It.” Max has been involved in fighting both Canadian and Utah tar sands, in resisting industrial-scale water extraction and deforestation in Nevada, in advocating for the last remaining wild buffalo in Yellowstone, in solidarity work with Indigenous communities in British Columbia, and in campaigns against sexual violence. To keep up with the news about Thacker Pass, check out the website at protectthackerpass.org and Protect Thacker Pass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Production Credits:

Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer

Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Studio Engineer and Audio Editor, WIOX 91.3 FM, Roxbury, NY

Music Selections:

1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)

Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters

CD: Tahi (1993)

Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)

(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: American Dream

Artist: J. S. Ondara

CD: Tales of America (The Second Coming) (2019)

Label: Verve Forecast Records

(00:18:34)

3. Song Title: Change on the Rise 

Artist: Avi Kaplan

CD: I’ll Get By (2020)

Label: Fantasy Records

(00:22:27)

4. Song Title: SInakaki He Wakiye (Family Camp Circle)

Artist: Earl Bullhead

CD: Walking the Red Road (1993)

Label: Sound of America

(00:52:35)

5. Song Title: The Dream

Artist: Robert Mirabel

CD: N/A

Label: N/A

(00:54:20)