Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people located in Oklahoma. The Potawatomi are traditionally an Algonquian-speaking Eastern Woodlands tribe. They have 29,155 enrolled tribal members, of whom 10,312 live in the state of Oklahoma.[1]

Citizen Potawatomi Nation
Flag
Total population
37,264[1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States ( Oklahoma)
Languages
Potawatomi, English
Religion
Mide Religion or Medicine Lodge Religion, Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Council of Three Fires (Odawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe)

Government

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is headquartered in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Cleveland and Pottawatomie Counties, Oklahoma. Of the 37,264 enrolled members, 10,312 live within the state of Oklahoma. They have their housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags.[1]

Enrollment in the tribe is based on lineal descent;[1] that is to say, the tribe has no minimum blood quantum.

Current administration

Executive Branch:

  • Chairman: John A. Barrett[1]
  • Vice Chairman: Linda Capps
  • Secretary/Treasurer: D. Wayne Trousdale

Legislative Branch:

Economic development

They operate a truck stop, two gas stations, two smoke shops, a bingo hall, two tribal casinos, FireLake Discount Foods in Shawnee, FireLake Golf Course, and First National Bank and Trust, with two locations in Shawnee, one in Holdenville, two in Lawton, and three in communities surrounding Lawton. Their estimated economic impact is $422.4 million.[1] In March of 2023 the nation was preparing the launch of tribal-owned Sovereign Pipe Technologies, LLC., an HDPE pipe manufacturer, being the first business located at the tribe’s 700-acre industrial park called Iron Horse.[3] The industrial park, located about 35 minutes west of Oklahoma City near Shawnee, is less than 10 miles from Interstate 40 and has a connection to the national rail network through the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad (AOK).[4]

Culture

In January 2006, the tribe opened its extensive Citizen Potawatomi Nation Museum and Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee. The 36,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) building houses the nation's research library, archives, genealogy research center, veteran's Wall of Honor, exhibit and meeting space, and a museum store.[5]

The tribe's annual intertribal powwow is no longer held. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Family Reunion Festival is held on the final Saturday of June each year. It attracts about 5,000 CPN members and their family members for a variety of cultural and other activities over a three-day period.

History

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is the successor apparent to the Mission Band of Potawatomi Indians, located originally in the Wabash River valley of Indiana. With the Indian Removal Act after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, the Mission Band was forced to march to a new reserve in Kansas. Of the 850 Potawatomi people forced to move, more than 40 died along the way. The event is known in Potawatomi history as the Potawatomi Trail of Death.

In Kansas, the Mission Band of Potawatomi lived on a small reserve with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The Prairie Band had adapted to the Plains culture but the Mission Band remained steadfast to the Woodlands culture. Both cultural groups exhibited very different ceremonial and subsistence strategies, yet were forced to share the land. Seeking a better opportunity for its people, the Mission Band leaders chose to take small farms rather than live together with the Prairie Band. Shortly thereafter, and not fully understanding the tax system, most of the new individual allotments of land passed out of Mission Band ownership and into that of white settlers and traders. In 1867, Mission Potawatomi members signed a treaty selling their Kansas lands in order to purchase lands in Indian Territory with the proceeds. To reinforce the new land purchase and learning from their Kansas experience, tribal members took U.S. citizenship. From that time on, they became known as the Citizen Potawatomi.

By the early 1870s, most of the Citizen Potawatomi had resettled in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, forming several communities near present-day Shawnee. In 1890, the Citizen Potawatomi participated, unwillingly, in the allotment process implemented through the Dawes Act of 1887. With this Act, the Citizen Potawatomi people were forced to accept individual allotments again. In the Land Run of 1891, the remainder of the Potawatomi reservation in Oklahoma was opened up to non-Indian settlement, with the result that about 450 square miles (1,200 km2) of the reservation was given away by the government to settlers.

Notable tribal members
  • Woody Crumbo (1912–1989), artist, flautist, dancer
  • Mary Killman (born 1991), Olympic synchronized swimmer[6]
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953), environmental scientist, educator, author[7]
  • Tyler Bray (born 1991), an American football quarterback[8]
  • Ron Baker (born 1993), Retired Basketball Player [9]
  • Kellie Coffey (born 1971), singer, songwriter, Winner Academy of Country Music Award Top New Female 2003
  • Creed Humphrey (born 1999), All-Pro center for the Kansas City Chiefs[10]
  • Veronica Cortez (born 2004), Miss Alaska for America 2023 <ref>

See also

Notes
  1. 2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. Archived April 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2011: 10. Retrieved 2 Jan 2012.
  2. Government. Archived 2009-03-07 at the Wayback Machine Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 2008
  3. "Citizen Potawatomi Nation opens tribal-owned manufacturing facility". Indian Country Today, March 7, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  4. "Homepage". Iron Horse Industrial Park. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  5. Cultural Heritage Center. Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 2008 (retrieved 21 Feb 2009)
  6. "Get Ready to Cheer on These Native Athletes at the 2012 London Olympics." Indian Country Today. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  7. "Writers-in-Residence Program: Robin Kimmerer." Archived 2013-04-02 at the Wayback Machine HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  8. "CPN member Tyler Bray Tosses two TDs; Vols Lose" Citizen Potawatomi Nation 31 October 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  9. Rosenbaum, Cary (March 16, 2016). "Native Pride in Post-Season: The First Five of The Top 10 Native March Madness Performers". Indian Country Today Media Network. Archived from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  10. Vishanoff, Rachel (2023-02-10). "Q&A with Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey". Potawatomi.org. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
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