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.
CPN tribal member Katie Lynch’s advocacy led to the adoption of a land acknowledgement by Rutgers University and the Rutgers School of Engineering. Lynch intends to use her biomedical engineering degree to use science to give back to Indigenous communities around the world.
Kansas City Chiefs starting center Creed Humphrey, a Citizen Potawatomi tribal member, received a warm welcome to his hometown of Shawnee, Oklahoma. Tribal Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett began the event with a blessing, smoking Humphrey off with sweetgrass, cedar, sage and tobacco. Shawnee Mayor Ed Bolt read a proclamation, naming March 4, 2023, as Creed Humphrey Day. Bolt then presented Humphrey with a key to the city of Shawnee.
A quilting group based in Linwood, Kansas, recently presented Citizen Potawatomi Nation veterans with handmade quilts to honor the veterans’ military service. Peggy Pistora, Navarre family descendant, is a member of the Linwood Community Library’s Quilts for Veterans group. She helped organize the Oct. 8, 2022, quilt presentation at the Rossville, Kansas, CPN community meeting.