Traditional Lakota warriors would shout "Hoka Hey!" to one another
as they charged into battle. In the context of battle hoka hey meant, "it
is a good day to die." In his When The Tree Flowered,
however, based on his conversations with Lakota Holy Man, Eagle Voice,
Nebraska poet, John Neihardt, explained the origin of the phrase. Literally
translated, hoka hey means "hold fast. There is more!"
From 1984-1993 Bridger Productions published a quarterly newspaper
titled, Hoka Hey! The venture began as a product newsletter but
rapidly grew to a 16 page tabloid newspaper with a circulation of 8,000
in all 50 states and 52 foreign countries. Over the years Hoka Hey!
primarily published stories and essays with provocative themes that attempted
to bridge the gap between modern American society and culture and traditional
and contemporary Native American history, religion and culture. One of
my favorites was a series that took two years to complete featuring 8 interviews
with Grandmothers and Grandfathers. There were many other wonderful features
presented over the years, however, such as the first publication of theology
philosopher Thomas Berry’s brilliant, Earth Economics essay and
reportage on the 1992 Star Knowledge Conference at Fisk Planetarium
in Boulder, Colorado in which scores of Native American astrologer-medicine
men gathered for the first time to present, discuss and share tribal
stellar mythology.
After eight years the newspaper grew so rapidly it began to seriously
interfere with my performing career. I tried letting it go to several professional
editors, but Hoka Hey! seemed to require my idiosyncratic touch,
and inevitably I was drawn back into the very stressful job of assembling
and distributing the newspaper. Finally, I decided I could scratch that
itch to write by creating more books, and I stopped publishing Hoka
Hey!
That was all before the impact of the world wide web. That was before
this website. And the University of Texas Press will published my
book, Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West, in November,
2002.
So it is with great pleasure that I re-introduce HOKA HEY! here
at bbridger.com I hope you will return often to bbridger.com
to check out the HOKA HEY! section of the website to read essays
and that you’ll also invite your friends and relations to visit as well.
I am initiating HOKA HEY! in cyberspace with this presentation of
my essay, Frank
Waters: Becoming Indigenous, which was published in 1993 by the
University of Ohio’s Swallow Press in the anthology, Frank Waters:
Man And Mystic.
Bobby's script for the DVD of A Ballad of the West was a finalist for the Western Writers of America's prestigious "Silver Spur" award for Best Documentary Script.
