To start off this March, Citizen Potawatomi Nation has decided to merge the efforts of the CPN Cultural Heritage Center’s Rekindling 7 Generations cultural education program and FireLodge Tribal Youth’s Potawatomi Learning and Cultural Exchange – better known as the PLACE program. To usher in this new program, we will be hosting two parent and youth open houses to showcase all the changes and new programming FireLodge’s Rekindling 7 Generations Tribal Youth Program has to offer! 

If you plan to attend, we ask that you RSVP by March 2. You can either RSVP by filling out this form: cpn.news/RK7RSVP or calling 405-214-5110.

We will be opening enrollment and releasing our new application on March 1. The online application can be accessed here: cpn.news/RK7App. At this link is our letter and updated sign-up sheet for RK7, cpn.news/RK7FLY.

As we move forward as a united program, FireLodge Tribal Youth Program’s Rekindling 7 Generations maintains a cooperative mission of all past CPN youth-related programs.

FTYP’s Rekindling 7 Generations nurtures the spiritual, mental, physical and social development of Potawatomi and Native youth and their community. It does this by rooting them in their Potawatomi culture, familial and intergenerational bonds and intertribal relationships to grow the future tribal leaders, citizens, and partners of Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The vision of FTYP’s Rekindling 7 Generations is our next generation will develop and renew respectful, reciprocal, and responsible relationships with themselves, their peers, their communities and future generations. Non-Native students are welcome to participate in our programs because it is important for all youth to have a better understanding of their peers and larger communities in which we all live together.

As we move forward to support this mission and vision of our united programs, we welcome our new partnership with CPN Behavioral Health Program to better serve our youth. Rickey Whisenhunt has recently been hired to serve as an on-site counselor to provide services for our youth and their families, but also we look forward to developing suicide and substance abuse prevention programming that is made to fit our community’s needs.

We encourage everyone to like our Facebook page, facebook.com/R7Gen to stay up to date about our new program. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at Lakota.Pochedley@potawatomi.org or 405-878-5830. All our programs are Potawatomi and Native preference.