As our youth have finished and perfected their beading, sewing, and cooking skills this past month, we are preparing for a new set of workshops and activities in November. We have some changes coming up to ensure all Potawatomi youth and families’ needs and wants for programming are being met. We will be introducing a new general application process. Instead of filling out an application for every workshop, first time participants will fill out a general application here: cpn.news/culturalapp. After the general application is complete and accepted, youth will simply have to sign up to participate in the workshops online, by calling or texting.
Our recurring programming will continue with the addition of several new programs. We will now offer a girls’ talking circle and boys’ drum circle in both Shawnee and south Pottawatomie County. In Shawnee, we will meet for the girls’ talking circle and boys’ drum circle on November 2 from 6-7:30 p.m. For south Pottawatomie County, we will meet after school from 3:30-5 p.m. at Konawa Schools for the girls’ talking circle and boys’ drum circle on November 11.
Due to interest, we have expanded our sewing and beading workshops as reoccurring monthly programs. Our traditional arts and skills groups will meet once a month in Shawnee and south Pottawatomie County beginning the second Monday of the month. For the month of November, the Shawnee traditional arts and skills group will meet on November 14-15 to continue working on ribbon skirts at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center from 4:15-6:30 p.m. The south Pottawatomie County traditional arts and skills group will meet on November 16-17 at Konawa Schools from 3:30-6 p.m. to work on their beaded turtle medallions. If youth are interested in participating in these groups, please contact me at lakota.pochedley@potawatomi.org for further information. During the winter months, we will also begin to work on a quilt and birch bark items.
We will begin hosting a monthly adult-child class on the first Monday of the month at the cultural heritage center from 6-7:30 p.m. These classes are for those too young to participate in our other programming, typically eight years old and younger. We welcome any parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, siblings or cousins who would like to bring their young relatives to these classes. For our first class on November 7, we will be making children’s pucker toe moccasins. You must sign up for the class by November 3 here, cpn.news/youthculture, and the limit is eight pairs. If you are unable to sign up online, please call the cultural heritage center at 405-878-5830 to sign up.
On Family Community Day for the month of November, Rekindling 7 Generations and the Etem Omvlkusen UNITY Council will co-host the Notah Begay III Foundation’s NB3 Fit Day Event on November 13 from 1-4 p.m., location TBA. The goal of the NB3 Fit Day is to engage 10,000 Native American youth in physical activity for a minimum of one hour on one day throughout the country. There are over 80 tribal nations or Native youth programs participating, including three other Potawatomi tribes. The theme of our NB3 Fit Day event is “traditional is healthy.”
We will be hosting a traditional sports event with several stations set up where Native youth and their families can play lacrosse, chunkey, southeastern stickball and double ball. Sign up and event details are here cpn.news/nb3fit2016.
To continue the theme of “traditional is healthy” during November (Native American Heritage Month), we will be rescheduling our snow snake workshop for November 28-30, the deadline to sign up is November 9. Online sign up is here cpn.news/ssnake2016.
We encourage everyone to like our Facebook Page, facebook.com/R7Gen/ to stay up to date about all our workshops, classes, and community events. If you have any questions, please feel free tocontact me at Lakota.Pochedley@potawatomi.org or 405-878-5830. All our programs are Potawatomi and Native preference.
Migwetch!