By Justin Neely, Director of the CPN Language Department As we head into December, it has been a busy fall for the CPN Language Department. We are finishing two adult classes, which were taught in person and streamed live in the Potawatomi Language group on Facebook. What’s nice about this is folks who don’t live Read More »
Submitted by Justin Neely, CPN Language Department Director It’s been a very busy month for the language department. By the time this reaches you, we will have reached our 800th person to use the Moodle online Potawatomi language course. If you haven’t tried it out, go to language.potawatomi.org. There is a Beginner I with 20 chapters. Read More »
Submitted by Justin Neely, CPN Language Department It’s been a busy month in the language department. We will have started a new eight-week language class from 5:30-7 p.m. central time on Wednesdays at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center, located near Shawnee, Oklahoma. If you are interested but missed the first class, you can Read More »
Submitted by Justin Neely, CPN Language Department director Bozho jayek (Hello everyone), By the time this comes out, we will have hosted our annual Winter Storytelling event. We also broadcast it live on Facebook this year. You should still be able to access the archived version by joining the group Potawatomi Language, and then finding Read More »
Submitted by Justin Neely It’s been a busy fall for Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Language Department. We are offering a 10-week beginner class 5:30-7 p.m. every Wednesday through Nov. 22 at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Students learn songs and play games as part of the learning process. Some Potawatomi-language games we have Read More »
Contributed by Justin Neely A lot is happening with Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Language Department. We are in our second year of offering beginning Potawatomi language education at St. Gregory’s University for college credit. We are also halfway through our first year of offering Potawatomi in the Oklahoma public school system. The department partnered with Wanette Read More »
Weather Terms: Traditionally when a storm approaches, we take a pinch of tobacco in our left hand and say a prayer asking the Creator to watch over us. We then place that tobacco on the north side of a tree, or, if we are near water, we might place it in the water. They say Read More »
Preserving the Potawatomi language is essential in the Tribe’s effort to maintain its identity as a distinct and sovereign people. On the front lines of the battle to maintain that distinct Potawatomi identity is the staff of the CPN Language Department, who in their everyday work keeps the Tribe’s native language alive. A recent graduate Read More »
As the Citizen Potawatomi Nation has grown in recent years, concerns about Potawatomi traditions and practices have come to the forefront in many conversations amongst Tribal members. Though many traditions are passed down from family elders, those living twenty first century lifestyles may feel like it’s a difficult task to adhere to practices developed Read More »
It’s been a busy year for the language department. Our three year grant that helps fund our development of self-paced language classes is coming along nicely. The classes will have four units with 10 topics in each unit. Each topic will be taught in five to eight lessons, depending on the subject. The classes are Read More »