Since she was three years old, Tribal member Marlee Affentranger and her parents have known without a doubt that not dancing is simply not an option for the young artist. Affentranger’s passion led her to found the first-ever pom squad at Bethel (Oklahoma) High School.
Dr. Rosemary Schrepfer, 101, is among the oldest living CPN elders. “Doc,” as she is lovingly known in her family, blazed a trail for women hoping to enter medicine. When she graduated from the University of Kansas’s medical school, she became the first woman to complete the obstetrician-gynecologist program.
Lafromboise father and son duo Steve and Koby Lawson made the trek to the top of California’s Mount Whitney (the highest point in the contiguous United States) in 2021. Two years later, they teamed up again to tackle Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, known as Colorado’s deadliest 14’er (a mountain with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet).
Author and artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey recently published Going to CPN Family Reunion, a book created for young readers. Crumbo Halsey collaborated with the CPN Language Department to publish the book.
CPN Tribal members Kristen Arambula Hernandez and Lauren Kelly collaborated to create an experience of art, culture and spirituality at a Norman, Oklahoma, Art Walk in September 2023.
In the heart of Norman, Oklahoma, lies Sunset Ranch, a sprawling equine boarding facility that serves as a testament to dreams coming true for CPN tribal member and Peltier/Vieux family descendant Jessica King.
In her first cookbook, Chef Loretta Barrett Oden shares personal stories of growing up near Shawnee, Oklahoma, among a group of “grandmothers and aunties,” who taught her about Potawatomi cooking and “using the fruits of the forest, stream or plain,” according to a press release announcing the book.
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.