For Deacon Black Bear, the fundamental dynamic of preaching is one of careful scriptural exegesis, listening to the community and then creative application. His son, Ben Black Bear III, and daughter-in-law, Jennifer Black Bear, coordinate religious education in local schools for nearly 300 Lakota students. They helped establish the Native American Pastoral Fund with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and represented their region on the National Tekakwitha Board, a leadership group for the over 500,000 Native American Catholics in the United States. North America as a whole, and Native American communities in particular, are experiencing an ongoing reckoning concerning U.S. federal policy toward Native American communities and the violence of the Christian boarding school era. In their holistic, border-crossing ministries and identities, Deacon Ben Black Bear and his fellow Lakota Catholic leaders offer a critical counter-witness.