In this episode of Native Circles, co-hosts Dr. Farina King and Eva Bighorse speak with Dr. T. Christopher (Chris) Hoklotubbe and Dr. H. Daniel (Danny) Zacharias, co-authors of Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation (2025). Chris Hoklotubbe, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, holds a ThD from Harvard and serves as Director of the Indigenous Theology Circle and Coordinator of the Graduate Studies Group for NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, the first accredited theological institute designed, developed, delivered, and governed by Indigenous peoples.

Danny Zacharias is a Cree-Anishinaabe/Métis and Austrian scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Treaty One Territory) with ancestral ties to Treaties Two, Three, and Five. He lives in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) and is Associate Dean and Professor of New Testament Studies at Acadia Divinity College, as well as adjunct faculty and journal editor for NAIITS.

Together, they explore what happens when the Bible is read from Turtle Island through Indigenous histories, geographies, and intellectual traditions. The conversation examines scripture’s entanglement with colonization, missionization, and boarding schools, and highlights Indigenous survivance, responsibility, and resurgence. Rather than treating the Bible as a text detached from land and power, Chris and Danny open space for Indigenous-centered approaches that honor both sacred text and sacred place.

Resources:

Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation by T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias

Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire by T. Christopher Hoklotubbe

Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable, the Healing of Northern Plains Boarding School Survivors by Denise K. Lajimodiere

NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community

Indigenous Biblical Interpretation with T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias