Citizen Potawatomi Nation received a $60,000 Tribal Heritage Grant to pursue research and restoration at the historic and sacred site of Uniontown Cemetery near Rossville, Kansas. The funds will be used to repair crumbling stone walls and gravestones at the cemetery and to conduct ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys of the area to confirm the location of a mass burial site where several Potawatomi ancestors are believed to have been buried following a cholera outbreak at Uniontown in 1849.
The Kansas Historical Society’s Director of Museum and Education Division, Mary Madden, recently reached out to Citizen Potawatomi Nation District 4 Legislator Jon Boursaw for consultation and to discuss updating the museum and nearby Baptist Mission.
CPN Legislator Jon Boursaw spearheaded efforts to create an exhibit, which features three interpretive signs. It stands at the entrance to Skyline Park at Burnett’s Mound, the site of Topeka’s highest point.
Barb Smith noticed the need for some colorful, pretty lap robes at the CPN Elder Village in Rossville, Kansas in April. The wheels started turning, and she enlisted the help of Felicia Brown to join her in making some new ones for the facility. As of mid-September, they had made 110.
The CPN and Shawnee County Parks and Recreation Department partnered to highlight the history of Burnett’s Mound at Skyline Park in Topeka, Kansas. Named after 19th century Potawatomi Chief Abram Burnett, the mound is Topeka’s highest elevated point.
Citizen Potawatomi Nation District 4 Legislator Jon Boursaw organized the Tribe’s participation as a local branch of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program to help distribute food to Potawatomi throughout northeastern Kansas.
Anderson is an instructor in the school’s Indigenous and American Indian Studies Department and is an expert on Haskell’s own long and complicated history.
CPN member and veteran Mike Martin learned how to play the flute after hearing musicians perform while volunteering at the Topeka Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas.
Joseph Bourassa descendant Doug Brown began capturing news around Topeka, Kansas, 27 years ago as a photographer at WIBW channel 13. Since then, he has risen to the ranks of WIBW’s chief photographer.
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.