Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Government

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is headquartered in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Cleveland and Pottawatomie Counties, Oklahoma. Of the 37,264 enrolled citizens, 10,312 live within the state of Oklahoma. They have their housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags.

Enrollment in the tribe is based on lineal descent; that is to say, the tribe has no minimum blood quantum.

Current administration

The executive branch administration in 2025 are: Executive Branch:

• Chairman: John "Rocky" Barrett
• Vice Chairman: Linda Capps
• Secretary-Treasurer: D. Wayne Trousdale John "Rocky" Barrett Tribal Vice-Chairman: Linda Capps Secretary-Treasurer: D. Wayne Trousdale

Legislative Branch:

• District #1: Steve Livingston, Maumee, Ohio
• District #2: Eva Marie Carney, Arlington, VA
• District #3: Robert Whistler, Bedford, TX
• District #4: Jon Boursaw, Topeka, KS
• District #5: Gene Lambert, Mesa, AZ
• District #6: Rande Payne, Visalia, CA
• District #7: Mark Johnson, Fresno, CA
• District #8: Dave Carney, Olympia, WA
• District #9: Paul Wesselhoft, Moore, OK
• District #10: David Barrett, Shawnee, OK
• District #11: Andy Walters, Shawnee, OK
• District #12: Paul Schmidlkofer, Tecumseh, OK
• District #13: Bobbie Bowden, Choctaw, OK

Economic development

They operate a truck stop, two gas stations, two smoke shops, a bingo hall, two tribal casinos, FireLake Discount Foods in Shawnee, FireLake Golf Course, and First National Bank and Trust, with two locations in Shawnee, one in Holdenville, two in Lawton, and three in communities surrounding Lawton. Their estimated annual economic impact in 2011 was $422.4 million. The industrial park, located about 35 minutes west of Oklahoma City near Shawnee, is less than 10 miles from Interstate 40 and has a connection to the national rail network through the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad (AOK).

Culture

In January 2006, the tribe opened its extensive Citizen Potawatomi Nation Museum and Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee. The 36000 sqft building houses the nation's research library, archives, genealogy research center, veteran's Wall of Honor, exhibit and meeting space, and a museum store.

The tribe's annual intertribal powwow is no longer held. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Family Reunion Festival is held on the final Saturday of June each year. It attracts about 5,000 CPN citizens and their relatives for a variety of cultural and other activities over three days.

History

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is the successor apparent to the Mission Band of Potawatomi Indians, located originally in the Wabash River valley of Indiana. With the Indian Removal Act after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, the Mission Band was forced to march to a new reserve in Kansas. Of the 850 Potawatomi people forced to move, more than 40 died along the way. The event is known in Potawatomi history as the Potawatomi Trail of Death.

In Kansas, the Mission Band of Potawatomi lived on a small reserve with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The Prairie Band had adapted to the Plains culture but the Mission Band remained steadfast to the Woodlands culture. The two groups exhibited very different ceremonial and subsistence strategies, yet were forced to share the land. Seeking a better opportunity for their people, the Mission Band leaders chose to take small farms rather than live together with the Prairie Band. Shortly thereafter, with the Potawatomi not fully understanding the tax system, most of the new individual allotments of land passed out of Mission Band ownership and into the hands of white settlers and traders. In 1867, Mission Potawatomi citizens signed a treaty selling their Kansas lands in order to purchase lands in Indian Territory with the proceeds. To reinforce the new land purchase and learning from their Kansas experience, tribal citizens took U.S. citizenship. From that time on, they became known as the Citizen Potawatomi.

By the early 1870s, most of the Citizen Potawatomi had resettled in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, forming several communities near present-day Shawnee. In 1890, the Citizen Potawatomi participated, unwillingly, in the allotment process implemented through the Dawes Act of 1887. Under this Act, the Citizen Potawatomi people were forced to accept individual allotments again. In the Land Run of 1891, the remainder of the Potawatomi reservation in Oklahoma was opened up to non-Indian settlement, with the result that about 450 sqmi of the reservation was given away by the government to settlers.

Notable tribal citizens

• Woody Crumbo (1912–1989), artist, flautist, dancer
• Mary Killman (born 1991), Olympic synchronized swimmer
• Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953), environmental scientist, educator, author
• Tyler Bray (born 1991), an American football quarterback
• Ron Baker (born 1993), retired basketball player
• Kellie Coffey (born 1971), singer, songwriter, winner of Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Female in 2003
• Creed Humphrey (born 1999), All-Pro center for the Kansas City Chiefs
• Veronica Cortez (born 2004), Miss Alaska for America in 2023
• Kyle Powys Whyte, Philosopher and environmental justice scholar
• Angela R. Riley, chief justice of Citizen Potawatomi Nation (2010–present)
• Margaret Wickens Pearce, cartographer and 2025 MacArthur Fellow

Notes

References

1. [http://www.ok.gov/oiac/documents/2011.FINAL.WEB.pdf 2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory.] {{webarchive. link. (April 24, 2012 ''Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission.'' 2011: 10. Retrieved 2 Jan 2012.)
2. "Citizen Potawatomi Nation". University of Oklahoma.
3. [http://www.potawatomi.org/Government/default.aspx Government.] {{webarchive. link. (2009-03-07 ''Citizen Potawatomi Nation.'' 2008)
4. "Citizen Potawatomi Nation opens tribal-owned manufacturing facility". Indian Country Today, March 7, 2023.
5. "Homepage". Iron Horse Industrial Park.
6. [http://www.potawatomi.org/Culture/Cultural+Heritage+Center/default.aspx Cultural Heritage Center.] ''Citizen Potawatomi Nation.'' 2008 (retrieved 21 Feb 2009)
7. [http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/07/27/get-ready-to-cheer-on-these-native-athletes-at-the-2012-london-olympics-125767 "Get Ready to Cheer on These Native Athletes at the 2012 London Olympics."] ''Indian Country Today.'' 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
8. link. (2013-04-02 ''HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.'' 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2012.)
9. [http://www.potawatomi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=176:cpn-member-tyler-bray-tosses-two-tds-vols-lose&catid=80:articles&Itemid=62 "CPN member Tyler Bray Tosses two TDs; Vols Lose"] ''Citizen Potawatomi Nation'' 31 October 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
10. Rosenbaum, Cary. (March 16, 2016). "Native Pride in Post-Season: The First Five of The Top 10 Native March Madness Performers". [[Indian Country Today Media Network]].
11. Vishanoff, Rachel. (2023-02-10). "Q&A with Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey".
12. "Beyond Crowns".
13. "Michigan State University".
14. (2022-09-28). "Justice Angela R. Riley, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, to deliver Stevens Lecture on October 18".
15. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2025/margaret-wickens-pearce