In Collar & Moccasins with Father Patrick Twohy S.J.
Step into a journey that spans basalt canyons, coastal waters and city streets—where listening becomes not just a practice but a way of belonging. In this episode of Power of Place, we walk alongside Father Pat Twohy, a Jesuit priest and poet whose five decades of ministry with Native communities across the Pacific Northwest have shaped a unique, place-based path of service.
We begin in Spokane at Gonzaga University, where a quiet breakfast conversation sparks an unexpected calling: to spend time in Native community. That first summer visit becomes a lifetime.
We travel with him to Nespelem, in the homelands of the Colville Confederated Tribes, where he arrives in long hair and Bermuda shorts—met with side-eye, laughter and a grandmother’s scolding. But he stays. Days turn into seasons, and trust begins to take root. Grandmothers steady him. Children pull him into games and stories. Through wakes, family meals and quiet witness, he is slowly welcomed into a way of life shaped by ritual, resilience and relationship.
Later, we join Father Pat in a smokehouse at Swinomish, where firelight flickers on cedar walls and prayer moves through drumbeats and silence. From there, he travels alongside tribal families in the canoe journeys that traverse the Salish Sea—paddling ancestral waters, honoring protocols and helping carry the sacred rituals of the first salmon. In these places, prayer rises not from pulpits but from smoke, salt air and ceremony.
In Seattle, we follow him into the heart of the urban Native community. At Chief Seattle Club, he offers presence over preaching: prayer, quiet companionship and a steady hand through grief, recovery and renewal. He travels often to nearby tribal nations—Tulalip, Puyallup, Muckleshoot—not as a guest speaker but as kin, showing up in times of joy and loss to offer sacraments, celebrate Mass and sit with families at wakes.
At Seattle University, where he settles during this third phase of his journey, Father Pat helps create a space for rootedness and renewal. He co-founds the Indigenous Peoples Institute—a place where Native students can hold fast to identity while navigating the demands of higher education, surrounded by culture, ceremony and community. During this time, Lushootseed language keeper Vi Hilbert deepens his understanding—not just of words but of the lifeways embedded in language. Her guidance echoes lessons first offered by longhouse elders Joe Red Thunder and Virginia Andrews, who had welcomed him into sacred space years before. Across all their teachings, one invitation remained constant: “Sit here. Listen. You’ll learn our ways.”
Along the way, we hear from tribal elders, students, spiritual teachers and friends—voices that braid through the episode like strands of sweetgrass: strong, sacred, enduring. Teri Gobin (Tulalip), Shelly Vendiola (Swinomish), and Darryl Hillaire (Lummi) speak directly to Father Pat’s presence and legacy in their communities. We also include the archival voice of the late Vi Hilbert (Upper Skagit), whose recorded teachings shaped the foundations of his spiritual journey.
Through all these voices, what emerges is not a tale of conversion but of transformation—a white priest becoming kin through humility, humor, heartbreak and presence.
He doesn’t preach. He sits at the fire. He listens. And as we listen too, we’re offered the same invitation: to learn from Native people, to be shaped by their wisdom and, like Father Pat, to walk away steady-hearted, wide-eared and newly attuned to the world around us.
We record on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples at the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle’s University District. Special thanks to John & Jill LaPointe and to Seattle University for their generous support of this episode. Thanks to the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe, content used via the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal at Washington State University.
The views expressed in this podcast series are those of the guests and reflect their personal lived experiences. Power of Place presents oral histories with real people, and while some opinions may be controversial, they are shared as authentic expressions that honor the complexity of place. Conversations are edited for length and clarity, but otherwise remain unedited to preserve context and substance. Listener discretion is advised.
“You have an ability to osmosis, I think. And I sort of inhale it. It sort of becomes part of me. Soaking it in without having to say anything or not performing anything. Just taking it in; receiving as much as I can possibly receive. And they knew that about me. And eventually, they spoon-feed me, a little bit at a time.”
