Episode Details

Episode Topic: Notre Dame's History with Native Peoples from Reunion 2026 

Drawing from the records of Fr. Badin, Fr. Sorin, and Fr. Hesburgh, as well as Chief Leopold Pokagon, the founder of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Zada Ballew '19 tells a fuller, more complicated story of how Notre Dame was founded and why. In this telling, Indigenous peoples are neither missing nor absent from the narrative — they are central to the history of the land that became Notre Dame. Understand more fully how the early history of the Potawatomi and Notre Dame is remembered on campus.

Featured Speakers:

• Zada Ballew, outgoing chair of NAA, University of Notre Dame

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/b0111b. 

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Indigenous Voices.

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