Tribal member Cadence Barreda began acting at the age of 4, and made her directorial debut at 17 with Game Night. Barreda won the Silver Award at the Red Nation Celebration Institute’s Native Indigenous Student Academy for Cinematic Arts. She was also a finalist at the Student World Impact Film Festival for best student short in May 2023 and won Best Short at Finger Mullet Film Festival in St. Augustine, Florida.
A Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal member recently became the newest franchisee of an Oklahoma business dedicated to preserving homes. Blake Elwell opened a branch of Preservan in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The business repairs homes using an epoxy material for a long-lasting and environmentally sustainable solution.
Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal member Vivian Hayes is new to high school wrestling, but she has already begun to make her mark in the sport, becoming one of the first female wrestlers from her school to qualify for state under a regional format.
During this episode, we’ll hear tips and tricks for keeping family heirlooms safe, take a ride on an exciting new piece of equipment for CPN’s industrial park, and visit an exhibit highlighting Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal member Mary Belle Zook spent her childhood on a farm in the Oklahoma panhandle, raising show animals and participating in the National FFA Organization. Now serving as the communications director for the Indigenous Food and Agricultural Initiative through the University of Arkansas School of Law, she brings together her skills, passions, agricultural background and Tribal heritage each day to help Native farmers and producers.
May is Older Americans Month — a time to acknowledge the contributions of older individuals in their communities. The Hownikan interviewed two Citizen Potawatomi elders about their role in the community and their advice for the younger generations.
Will Pappan, one of the third-generation owners of Lively Hope Farm in Wynona, Oklahoma, works to have a positive impact on the industry as he tends to the farm where he grew up and made childhood memories.
Best known for her 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass, Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal member Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a plant ecologist, educator and writer. Dr. Kimmerer was named as a MacArthur Fellow in 2022, and hopes to use the fellowship to work on her next book.
Indigenous cultures across the globe have used tattoos as status symbols, to represent religious beliefs or just for adornment. One Potawatomi artist proud to share her spin on Indigenous tattoo art is Shelly Wahweotten, an enrolled citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and owner of Analog Electric Tattoos in Oklahoma City.
In April, HP Engineering, Inc. announced that its Vice President and Regional Engineering Director Dr. Andrew Mock, PhD, PE, SE, was selected as a 2023 Oklahoma Magazine 40 Under 40 honoree for his contributions as a leader in the architecture, engineering and construction industry.