Season 5: Ep. 2 Soul Wounds: Indigenous Survival and the Limits of Religious Freedom

Season 5: Ep. 2 Soul Wounds: Indigenous Survival and the Limits of Religious Freedom

From Our 7 Neighbors: Religion and Resistance in America by InterReligious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary

May 12, 2026 · 52 min · Episode 33

About this episode

The episode features a conversation about Indigenous survival and the complexities of religious freedom in the context of American history.

Under the backdrop of our nation’s 250th anniversary, Our Seven Neighbors, season 5, explores the long, contested history of religious diversity in the United States—not as a feel-good celebration of pluralism, but as a hard-won achievement forged through conflict, exclusion, resistance, and moral struggle. Episode 2 features host Reza Aslan in conversation with Dr. Farina King. Farina King, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and Full Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her research centers on Native American oral histories, especially among her Diné relatives and connections in Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University in History. She is the author of various publications, including The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century; co-author with Michael P. Taylor and James R. Swensen of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School; and author of Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century. She is a co-editor of The Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures with the…

People in this episode

Host: Reza Aslan

Guest: Dr. Farina King

Topics covered

  • Indigenous survival
  • religious freedom
  • oral histories
  • Native American studies
  • religious diversity
  • conflict and resistance

Keywords

  • Indigenous
  • religious freedom
  • Navajo Nation
  • oral history
  • Native American studies
  • Reza Aslan
  • Farina King

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Oklahoma, Arizona State University, University Press of Kansas, Palgrave Studies in Oral History, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Indigenous Studies, Southwest Oral History Association

Books & works: The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century, Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School, Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century

Places: Navajo Nation

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