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Podcasts are among the fastest-growing communication channels worldwide as organizations find more ways to reach their audiences directly through channels they own and control. St. Joseph’s Indian School has a video podcast series to showcase the people and ideas that make our school the special place our families tell us it is.
Season 1 Trailer
Why tune in to a podcast from St. Joseph’s Indian School? Learn more about what the school has to offer. Listen to the wisdom of thought-leaders on Native American education today. Laugh, hope, warm your heart and sharpen your mind at the center of the school’s camp circle.
The Lakota word Hóčhoka (emphasis on the first syllable) means the center of the camp circle. The name speaks to the actual location of the recording studio at the heart of campus, the centrality of the mission of St. Joseph’s Indian School to all that we do, the role of the podcast to be at the center of the Native American educational conversation and gather others around that conversation.
Season 1
Season 1 guests and topics include:
- Student Coordinator Jennie Schilling and Transition Specialist Krista Lepkowski in a three-part series that discusses the school’s unique approaches to helping students find success and overcome obstacles
- Sičháŋǧu Lakota author Joseph Marshall III in a six-part series on helping Native American youth know their cultural identity
- The school’s Native American Studies Lead and Sičháŋǧu Lakota LaRayne Woster on her journey to embracing her cultural identity
- Dr. Damian Costello, Scholar of Catholic Social Thought and Teaching, Black Elk and Native American Studies on Black Elk, Catholicism and Lakota Spirituality
Episode 1
Host Mike Tyrell speaks with Hóčhoka podcast host Scott Woster about St. Joseph Indian School’s new podcast. The two share the season line up and insights from the production process.
Episode 2
Our parents asked us to tell about the positive parenting methods we use, and we’re responding. How do we turn a problem situation into a positive learning experience? In this episode St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Student Coordinator Jennie Schilling tells us about the big differences the school makes in students’ lives by meeting them where they are and turning challenges into opportunities.
Episode 3
In Part II of this three-part series called “Kid Whispering,” St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Student Coordinator Jennie Schilling explains the way that the school helps students to recognize and manage behavior issues and learn the new skills needed to navigate difficulty.
Episode 4
Success is a concept. What does it look like? Feel like? What about failure? In Part III of our series on Kid Whispering, Transition Specialist Krista Lepkowski knows it well and tames the concept in her vital work with students at St. Joseph’s Indian School as she supports students in their transition into life beyond their high school years.
Episode 5
Where do you find hope for Lakota cultural identity? Award-winning author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III has hope for the mechanism of storytelling to revive community and identity for his people. Listen here for the wisdom he shares on Hóčhoka.
Episode 6
“Know where you came from,” advises award-winning author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III as he reflects on the wisdom of his grandfather who would remind him to look back down the path they had traveled. Cultural identity depends on this kind of memory and language revitalization.
Episode 7
Legendary Lakota Leader Sitting Bull had a vision before the battle of Greasy Grass that included this message, “Do not take anything that belongs to them.” Join award-winning author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III as he discusses the debate on the meaning of the vision and how it pertains to cultural identity today.
Episode 8
Hear the fascinating story of how the Lakota bow and arrow get their form and function from the natural world and hold Lakota cultural authenticity. Lakota author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III uses the bow and arrow to relate practical advice for restoring cultural identity. Listen here for the wisdom he shares on Hóčhoka.
Episode 9
Cultural and familial stories hold the seeds of cultural identity. Award-winning author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III traditional Lakota stories and shares his family narratives to illustrate the power and richness of stories. Listen here for the wisdom he shares on Hóčhoka.
Episode 10
“To be a good person is the right thing to do,” says author and storyteller Joseph Marshall III in expressing the first purpose for living. He and hosts Scott Woster and Hope McCloskey explore the role of place, purpose and history in restoring Lakota cultural identity.
Episode 11
What was this fascination with the numbers 4 and 7? Why did she love storms and the red earth of South Dakota’s Black Hills? Listen as St. Joseph’s Indian School’s LaRayne Woster tell the story of her personal journey to a strong Lakota Cultural Identity and how she encourages her students to follow the same path.
Episode 12
Learn about the Native discovery of Christianity that pre-dates forced assimilation and the scripture passage wherein Black Elk found new power in the new world that was thrust upon him. What does all of this have to do with the trauma that still needs healing today? Join Hóčhoka and listen to leading Black Elk expert Dr. Damian Costello.
Episode 13
What happened when Black Elk took the same spirit of openness that led to his discovery of Christianity in Europe and brought it to his encounter with Native Christianity in the Ghost Dance movement at home? Learn what happened as he wrestled with his vision and these discoveries. Hear about opportunities missed in the Lakota Christian encounter. Join Hóčhocka and Black Elk expert, Dr. Damian Costello.
Episode 14
Did Black Elk choose Christianity as a sell-out or a survivor? What does 1 Corinthians 13 have to do with it? Join us on Hóčhoka as Dr. Damian Costello answers these questions and helps us tease out the complementary aspects of Lakota and Christian spiritual traditions to arrive at something even bigger.
The podcast is directed at internal and external audiences and will vary by topic. Audiences might include employees, potential employees, families and students, the general public, supporters, advocates, educators and donors.
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Podcast Hosts
Scott Woster
Who do you get when you take a wide-eyed guy with a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology from North Dakota State University and pair him with small-town Chamberlain, S.D., and St. Joseph’s Indian School?
• Nearly 30 years of love and dedication to the students, the families and other staff and their stories through his work as a Family Service Counselor
• A 2006 marriage to Sičáŋǧu Lakota Native American Studies Teacher for the school, LaRayne, and her three teenage daughters
• The 2008 birth of a daughter to the family
• Hóčhoka Podcast Host Scott Woster
Scott calls all of this a way-of-life he’d trade for no other. The son of a South Dakota journalist and nurse mother, he makes every stint in the Hóčhoka podcast studio a moment of passionately sharing the St. Joseph’s Indian School story.
Hope McCloskey
What’s a savvy young Ponca/ Sičháŋǧu Lakota woman doing in a place like Hóčhoka Podcast studio?
•Continuing a great relationship with St. Joseph’s Indian School that she began as a sixth-grade student in August 2014
• Adding young-adult wisdom and energy to the conversations we share
• Enriching her film and television career with her hosting experience
• Collaborating with staff she knows and loves and building new relationships with experts in the field of Native American thought
Hope fits Hóčhoka into the busy life of a student on the cusp of graduating from Augustana University. Her free time involves working in the university library, munching on McDonald’s, panicking over papers and power-sleeping to cure stress. “I wouldn’t miss the opportunity for anything in the world,” she says. We hope you will enjoy your time with her as much as we do.