Citizen Potawatomi Nation members have had many accomplishments and earned distinctions in academic, athletic and artistic fields over the past few months. Here are just a few of their success stories. If you have someone whose accomplishments deserve recognition, please email hownikan@potawatomi.org.
The son of Kimberly Holloway and Daniel Holloway, Isaac Eichelberger was selected to the first chair, alto saxophone for the Central Oklahoma Director’s Association. He has been playing for four years and told the Hownikan, “When I play, I feel like I’m in another world. It means everything. I hope it takes me far and I can do it my whole life.”
Lakota Pochedley, a Native American Studies and Anthropology graduate of Columbia University, has been nominated as a 2013 National Indian Education Association Student Board Candidate. The NIEA’s mission is to advance comprehensive educational opportunities for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians throughout the United States. Board members choose the association’s leaders, who will work on the national level to advance excellent teaching and comprehensive, culturally based education for all Native students. Pochedley is a Potawatomi Leadership Program alumni who has returned the past two summers to serve with the Language Department and at the P.L.A.C.E. for tribal youth organization. She will begin her MA in Native American Studies at the University of Texas this year.
CPN member Tyler Bray has made the final roster of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. According to ESPN, Bray will begin his professional career as the third string quarterback for the Chiefs after going undrafted out of the University of Tennessee.
In late July, tribal member Mary Killman finished 10th in the solo technical routine at the FINA Synchronized Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Killman is the reigning solo champion at both the U.S. National and U.S. Collegiate Championships, titles won while swimming for Lindenwood University.