“Sending you greetings and strength from the highlands of the Esopus, in the lands of the Munsee-speaking Lenape,” Tiokasin Ghosthorse said into a mic at Radio Kingston during his nationally syndicated weekly show Indigenous Voices.

For a man who people have tried to silence for much of his life, the profession is almost poetic.

“This is First Voices Radio. My name is Tiokasin Ghosthorse."

Born in South Dakota on a reservation, Ghosthorse had his family’s traditions stripped of him as an elementary student at boarding school. Since then, he’s spent his life traveling.

“The main reason I came here is to learn about the east coast and learn about the Indigenous history that I otherwise haven’t learned in American history textbooks…which is very little,” said Ghosthorse.

The city of Kingston’s recent spike in population and its effects are all too familiar to the Lakotan.

“I know that experience. That’s why I could see it, where you have people coming in planning on how to live here and changing earth to meet human needs, rather than humans changing ourselves to meet her needs,” said Ghosthorse.

He’s found himself to be a voice in the local Indigenous peoples’ community, and a home in Kingston. But the area came with a surprise.

“The lack of Native people, that look Native, and coming to understand that a lot of people were mixed, and so were their ideas,” said Ghosthorse.

Like many Indigenous children, Tiokasin was forced to attend a boarding school designed to strip him of his Native identity.

“No songs, no language, no long hair, no dress, no dressing Native. Six-and-a-half years old, coming into this society, I didn’t speak any other language, and I was forced to learn through a Bible and a dictionary,” said Ghosthorse. “The language was the first weapon that was drawn against our people. “My mother said, ‘we cannot speak Lakotan without intuition.'” said Ghosthorse.

He intends to never let anyone else forget about what happened.

“We’re still here? As Native people! Makes sense to me,” said Ghosthorse.