Toupin family descendant Karen Whitecotton previously served as the director of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center. She now runs her own consulting business, Heritage Museum Services LLC, and recently accepted the position of OKPOP director of collections.
One Tribal member rose above Western European ideologies of women and leadership. Massaw, daughter of Potawatomi Chief Wassato and wife of a French-Canadian fur trader, held standings as a Tribal headman and prominent business owner.
More than 250 Citizen Potawatomi served during the Vietnam War. To date, it was the largest enlistment of the Citizen Potawatomi for any conflict involving the U.S.
Greg Riat, a Welch family descendant, continues to live and farm on 120 acres of allotted land assigned to the Potawatomi family through treaties during the mid-1860s.
After decades of turmoil in Kansas, Citizen Potawatomi leaders began planning for the Tribe to start anew. Although the Treaty of 1861 provided Tribal members U.S. citizenship and land allotments in Kansas, the federal government did not honor the treaty’s terms. As a result, many Citizen Potawatomi lost everything. The CPN Cultural Heritage Center’s gallery Read More »
A group of five musicians from Dream Warriors Management stopped at Citizen Potawatomi Nation this September. During their national “Heal It” tour, they performed for thousands of Indigenous youth at schools across the U.S. “I just love making music already, and it is definitely a motivational and inspirational tool. And it’s a tool for building Read More »
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center regularly honors and recognizes Tribal servicemen and women. It recently revealed this year’s honored veteran case, highlighting CPN tribal member and First Lieutenant Richard “Dick” Johnson’s commitment to tradition, duty and history. “The Tribe has a large veterans’ base, which stems from a strong warrior tradition for Potawatomi Read More »
Amidst an era of increased expansion by non-Native settlers into the United States’ western frontiers, a single piece of legislation codified federal policy on the topic of removing tribal people from their lands. On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. This legislation authorized the federal government to forcibly Read More »
The fur trade’s decline and colonial competition increased turmoil across Indian Country. Through the 18th to early 19th century, discord among Native Americans and the federal government continued to grow. Section five of the Cultural Heritage Center focuses on this influential time in North American history. Each Native group had their own survival tactics. Some Read More »
In 1634, French explorer Jean Nicolet made initial European contact with the Potawatomi near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The fourth section of the Cultural Heritage Center introduces the coming together of two worlds. “The goal was to tell the complete story of how this pivotal period impacted the Potawatomi, their French allies and the future landscape Read More »