This January, after years of planning and reconstruction, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center held its official grand reopening, revealing 11 new exhibits. The first explains one of the Tribe’s oral traditions, the Seven Fires Prophecy. “Our oral traditions are our history,” said CPN Cultural Heritage Center Director Kelli Mosteller, Ph.D. “Before written Read More »
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center’s completed remodel recently opened to visitors for the first time since March 31, 2014. “We’re reopening this center for the heritage of our people,” said CPN Cultural Heritage Center Director Kelli Mosteller “These renovations and upgrades will allow us to continue to educate our community about the Potawatomi Read More »
Recent visitors of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma, have seen progress made on the museum exhibits, including storytelling videos and cultural interactives. One key creative staff member helping to make new exhibits a reality is CHC audio-visual production manager Shawn Barfield, who began contract work with CPN roughly three years Read More »
For thousands of years, the Nishnabe have made baskets out of black ash trees and porcupine quills. One of the most-used images in basketry is the strawberry because of the cultural significance of the fruit. “The Potawatomi word for strawberry is demen, which is directly translated as ‘heart berry,’” said Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Read More »
Along with the traveling exhibit honoring tribal veterans from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center’s Long Room showcases photos of CPN military members on the Veterans Wall of Honor. There is also a case dedicated to each of the wars and conflicts in which tribal Read More »
Kelli Mosteller is director of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center and perhaps one of the most recognizable names representing the tribe. With a roster of impressive awards and a doctoral degree to her name, she was also recently recognized as one of The Journal Record newspaper’s 50 Making a Difference in Oklahoma. The Read More »
Somewhat of a different turn for this week’s Way Back Wednesday as our CPN Cultural Heritage Center archives and collections department seeks the help of tribal members who may know the origin of an item in the museum collections. Do you recognize this doll? It is one of many interesting items within our ethnology collection. Read More »
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor a direct hit from a tornado or a multi-million dollar, man-made flood could stop the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center from reaching its tenth anniversary. “It’s been an incredibly difficult past couple of years following the flood of 2014, but as we begin to undertake the rebuild of museum Read More »
Kee-wau-nay was a war chief, one of the old patriarchs of the Pottawattamies of the Wabash. The village of Kee-wau-nay and the charming lake which was in close vicinity was named after the chief. He was an old man of consideration among his people…. He was familiar with the citizens of Logansport [Indiana] who respected Read More »
A recent acquisition that was graciously donated by the Pottawatomie County Museum and Historical Society is a small photograph measuring 2.5” x 4” known as a carte de visite of prominent Citizen Potawatomi member Mary Anderson Bourbonnais. The photograph was made in Topeka, Kan. by photographer James H. Leonard in the 1870s.