Citizen Potawatomi Nation District 7 Legislator Mark Johnson spent more than 40 years as a firefighter in California. In early September 2022, Fresno County named him the recipient of the Public Safety Hero Award as one of the 2022 State of the County Front Line Hero Honorees for his leadership at Shaver Lake, which was nearly destroyed by the fifth-largest fire in California history in 2020.
Earlier this year, Citizen Potawatomi Nation District 12 Legislator Paul Schmidlkofer spent several weeks working on the set of the Peabody Awards-winning show Reservation Dogs as they filmed season two. The comedy-drama created by Seminole Nation citizen Sterlin Harjo tells the story of four Indigenous teenagers growing up in rural Oklahoma and their efforts to determine their futures.
Alan Melot became Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s District 1 legislator in September 2021. He lives in Joplin, Missouri, with his wife Stephanie and works as a licensed clinical psychologist.
In this month’s episode, we’ll meet CPN’s new District 1 legislator, hear about the new First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City and learn about how the Tribe has dealt with the tumultuous employment sector through hiring events.
In this episode, we’ll meet CPN’s new District 11 legislator, Andy Walters, and hear from a graduate student about his most recent project ground mapping Potawatomi presence in the Great Lakes region. We’ll also visit this summer’s FireLake Fireflight Balloon Festival.
The Boy Scouts of America oath is straightforward: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” Citizen Potawatomi Nation District 12 Legislator Paul Read More »
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 »
Offices for Vice-Chairman, Secretary-Treasurer and Legislative Districts 5, 6, 7 and 8 were all on the ballot during the 2014 election season, though only incumbents Dave Carney (District 8) and Mark Johnson (District 7) drew challengers. In District 7, first time candidate Michael Bourbonnais of Fresno, Calif. ran while Vancouver, Wash.’s Clyde Slavin again Read More »
What does it mean to you to be a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation? “My citizenship is very special to me. It is simultaneously a link to the past and a glimpse of possibilities of the future. We are all family, connected by a common past experience. We are over thirty thousand in membership Read More »
What does it mean to you to be a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation? As an enrolled citizen of the CPN since birth, I have a strong sense of nationality and responsibility. I am grateful for my native heritage which I actively pursue. I do not just give lip-service to “preserve culture,” I Read More »