FireLake Wellness Center attendee finds passion in running

Tammy Lorett admits that she had struggled with leading a healthy lifestyle for quite some time. On top of having to take daily medications, she had been unsuccessful in quitting her smoking habit. In 2014, Lorett decided to participate in the CPN holiday weigh-in contest and finally found the motivation needed to initiate a lifestyle change Read More »

Iranian-Mexican-Citizen Potawatomi writer finds an audience in Oklahoma City

Fueled by an oilfield boom, the Oklahoma City metropolitan area largely weathered the Great Recession that inundated other parts of the country. The recent drop in energy prices has slowed the economy somewhat, yet the city and its surrounding areas continue to grow. Where its younger residents once took flight for professional opportunities in surrounding Read More »

Potawatomi author Bob Sander to speak at Vietnam Vets Banquet

In February 1971, hundreds of U.S. Army and Air Force aircraft took part in an operation to sever one of the main arteries supplying weapons and supplies to the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army fighting the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies. One of the pilots taking part in that operation, dubbed Lam Son 719, Read More »

Tribal member Linda Arredondo joins I.T. Dept

Linda Arredondo. As an employer of more than 2,200, Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s government and commercial enterprises require the latest quality of technological offerings across its wide array of services. Few companies in the private sector have experienced growth like CPN, meaning a small team of information technology professionals work tirelessly to keep digital systems online Read More »

Housing Director Scott George’s path from the oil fields to the housing office

One doesn’t typically think about a roof until its missing. For many in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, a lack of adequate housing is a real concern though. With a poverty rate of more than 18 percent, a significant portion of Pottawatomie County residents rely on Native American-run housing authorities like Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Tribal Housing Department. Read More »

FireLake Entertainment Center’s Mary Hunt keeps gaming fair

Even in a highly regulated sector such as gaming, there are always individuals seeking to take advantageof the system. Popular culture has even made heroes out of the practice with films like “Casino” and“Ocean’s Eleven.” Less celebrated in Hollywood portrayals though are those behind the scenes of gaming enterprises tasked with staying one step ahead Read More »

Traveling to Gathering, a way of life for Cathryn Wamego

In the mid-1830s bands of the Potawatomi endured a forced removal that displaced the tribes from the upper Midwest of the United States to Kansas and Oklahoma. In commemoration of that horrendous journey, tribal elders from all bands of the Potawatomi agreed to hold an annual event to bring all bands together to embrace each Read More »

Meet your Legislator: District 6’s Rande Payne

Spread across the United States and even further afield in the world, CPN’s thirty thousand members may sometimes feel detached from the day-to-day life taking place in the Tribe’s base in Shawnee, Okla. Maintaining that connection takes a commitment from a handful of Tribal legislators who reside around the country. Representing those members in southern Read More »

FireLake Bowling Center’s Randy Loftis named Trail Blazer of the Year

It has been a busy couple of years for FireLake Bowling Center’s Randy Loftis. The Shawnee-Okla. native is a regular figure on the bowling lanes around Oklahoma as a competitor in amateur and semi-professional tournaments. He spent the better part of the summer of 2014 helping out with the bowling center’s hosting of the PBA Read More »