Legislature

Video and audio of meetings of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Legislature will be streamed live here on www.Potawatomi.org. You will be able to watch the meeting by clicking here. This will open a separate browser that displays the streaming access point. Type the number “1” in the “Conference ID” field and press Enter. That will open the live streaming presentation of the legislative session.

For legislative sessions, the legislators from Oklahoma gather in the Legislative Chamber in the CPN Administration Building, 1601 S. Gordon Cooper Dr., Shawnee, Oklahoma. The legislators from the eight districts around the United States participate in the session via video-teleconference.

The CPN legislature has formed eight committees: Rules & Government; Judiciary & Public Safety; Health & Human Services; Natural Resources; Tribal Culture & Arts; Economic Development & Commerce; and Appropriations & Budgets. Click for a chart listing the legislators who serve on each committee and the issues that each committee addresses.

The recent approval of the revised CPN Constitution created a 16-member CPN legislature. Half the members have been elected at-large from Oklahoma to represent their fellow Citizen Potawatomis in the state. Each of the other eight members represents a legislative district outside Oklahoma. Tribal members in each district elect the representative from their district.

The change in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s basic form of government is designed to accomplish two goals – extend more input into their government’s decisions to tribal members who live outside Oklahoma and take a major step toward a three-branch government with checks and balances.