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- By Native News Online Staff
After 33 years on the air, First Voices Radio will broadcast its final episode on Sunday, July 6, 2025. Founded in 1992 by Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Cheyenne River Lakota), the program has served as a vital platform for global Indigenous voices, focusing on issues central to the protection and preservation of Mother Earth—always told from the perspective of the original peoples of the world.
Airing weekly since its inception, the show 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 broadcast will be available live on-air and via streaming at https://radiokingston.org.
Originally titled First Voices Indigenous Radio, the program holds the distinction of being the first Indigenous radio show in the northeastern United States. Over the years, it has reached a wide audience—garnering more than a million online visits annually—and has become known for amplifying the voices, stories, and struggles of Indigenous communities often excluded from mainstream and alternative media landscapes.
The show’s Host, Executive Producer, and Founder, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, hails from the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation in South Dakota and the bands of Itazipco-Mnicoujou and Oglala. An author, activist, and renowned Lakota flute musician, Tiokasin has been described as “a spiritual agitator, natural rights organizer, Indigenous thinking process educator, and community activator.” Since 2012, the program has also been produced by Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe).
“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.”
A Legacy of Voices and Vision
Over the years, First Voices Radio has called several stations home, beginning with its founding at KAOS 89.3 FM in Olympia, Washington. From there, the show continued its journey through WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City; WPKN 89.5 FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut; WIOX 91.3 FM in Roxbury, New York; and most recently, Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM in Kingston, New York.
“I’ve been honored and grateful that First Voices Radio found welcoming homes at each of these incredible stations,” says Tiokasin Ghosthorse. “Their openness to our format and message has meant everything.”
The program has been internationally syndicated, airing on more than 110 community, public, and commercial stations across 24 U.S. states 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. Additionally, the show has reached audiences in Germany and has been available globally through podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
While First Voices Radio is coming to a close, Tiokasin emphasizes that this is not an ending, but a transformation.
“First Voices Radio is retiring — but I am not,” he says. “I’m simply transitioning, moving into new dimensions that life still offers.”
Tiokasin’s next chapter includes the forthcoming release of Earth Mind, a new book co-authored with Robert Toth and Dr. John Briggs. The book explores holocentric consciousness—an Indigenous-centered approach to life that stands in contrast to the dominant anthropocentric worldview.
“In writing Earth Mind, we’ve made every effort to respect readers by not offering prescribed actions or solutions,” Tiokasin explains. “We’re not proposing a new ideology, philosophy, or religion. We believe that offering ‘solutions’ only draws people further into the mindset that caused the damage in the first place. Comforting as that may be, it hasn’t worked. What’s needed now is to go deeper.”
For those who wish to follow Tiokasin’s ongoing work, he remains active on Facebook (he maintains two pages under his name), Instagram, Patreon, and through the First Voices Radio website, where an archive of past episodes is available.
He also invites visitors to explore Akantu Intelligence—an institute he founded to help contextualize original Indigenous wisdom for today’s complex times. Tiokasin can be reached directly at [email protected].
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