The Grand Kankakee Marsh is and was an important place for the Potawatomi people who live in around the Calumet region of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. This was once one of the largest continuous wetlands in North America in the Kankakee River Watershed, covering 1,500 square miles or approximately 1 million acres. Its western extent was near the present-day city …
The first Tribal Seal was created in the 1970s by Secretary/Treasurer Beverly Hughes. It was a black circle with “Great Seal of the Citizen Band of Potawatomi Indians of Oklahoma” inside the edge and featured a crossed Cherokee-style pipe and tomahawk over a fire with three logs. When the Tribe changed its name in 1996 to the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, …
Aside from being skilled hunters, fishermen and food gatherers, Potawatomi were successful agriculturalists. Villages used an ancient technique known as slash and burn to clear and convert forests into enriched agricultural fields. The size and pattern of fields utilized the land’s natural shape. Tools made of bone, stone and wood were used to cultivate a variety of crops. Foods planted …
Played throughout the year is a popular game reserved primarily for women called gwzegé’wen [bowl and dice]. Considered a great honor, only certain women are allowed to host games and possess equipment, a right conferred through a dream. Traditionally, women were responsible for hosting annual dodem [clan] feasts in honor of their bowl and dice set. Gaming equipment includes: (1) …
Laframboise foundation Theresa Laframboise Hardin Watkins Beaubien — Chee Chee — and her family removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, before making the journey to the Potawatomi reservation in Kansas. Theresa was the daughter of Chief Joseph Laframboise and Therese Peltier. Joseph held a standing as one of the Chicago Chiefs, along with Chief Wabunsee, Chief Thomas “Billy” Caldwell or Sauganash, …
An important victory for the Native alliance during the Northwest Indian War, Harmar’s Campaign attempted to suppress Native attacks on settlers and garrisons in the Ohio Territory. United States General Josiah Harmar engaged in numerous ineffective retaliatory assaults on major tribal villages that amassed overwhelming casualties and defeat.
In 2013, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn joined Citizen Potawatomi Nation Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett to formally approve Tribal leasing regulations meant to spur investment and commercial development on the Nation’s trust lands in central Oklahoma. The regulations gave CPN the authority to decide how it wants to do business …
Higbee-Potawatomi beginnings The Higbee’s Potawatomi roots begin in the 1800s with the marriage of Julia Justine Bertrand and Alva Higbee. Julia’s parents, Madeline and Joseph Bertrand, were successful fur traders and business owners near Lake Michigan. Madeline was the daughter of Daniel Bourassa I and an unknown Potawatomi woman. Her mother was most likely a member of Potawatomi communities in …
Having endured the boarding school years, where children were taken far from their families and placed in schools designed to strip them of their culture, the continuation of Native child adoption by non-Indian families proved one of the direst issues facing tribal communities by the 1970’s. For generations, Indian families lost their children to federal agents, who, at their discretion, …
The Indian Gaming & Regulatory Act was a law passed by Congress attempting to mitigate the growing frustration states had with their inability to tax and regulate sovereign Indian nations’ gaming operations. Beginning in the 1960’s and 1970’s, tribal communities across the United States began operating bingo houses to raise money for their communities. As states also attempted to channel …