2025 CPN Family Reunion Festival

Tonight at the annual gathering in Shawnee!

CPN Family Reunion

Festival offers chance to compete

Between taking classes at the Cultural Heritage Center and savoring some fry bread, don’t forget to take part in some of this year’s competitions at the Family Reunion Festival. Whether you’re athletically inclined, a creative, or just love a chance to engage with a team, there are plenty of things to choose from.

Art competitions

Each year at Festival, Tribal members of all ages and experience levels have the opportunity to enter the art contest.

This year, there have been a couple changes to the number of entries per person in the amateur adult category and the pickup time of entries at the end of the contest.

Tribal members aged 16 and older can enter one piece into either the amateur or the professional categories of the adult art contest. (Professional is for artists who have been paid for the type of work they enter. The amateur category is for those who have never been paid to create the type of art they enter.)

Submissions can include all types of modern and traditional art, and the art does not have to include Indigenous themes.

For professional artists, first place is $300, and the winner will be selected by a vote of Festival attendees taken in the foyer of FireLake Arena.

Amateur artists can enter one piece of art into either the photography/painting category or the category for other mediums. Winners of the amateur art contest will be selected by a professional artist, and prizes are $300 for first, $200 for second and $100 for third place.

Registration for the adult art contest is from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at FireLake Arena. All entries must be the work of the artist without any assistance. Prize winners will be announced during General Council, where the prize money will be awarded.

All entries for the adult art contest must be picked up by 3 p.m. After that time, the art will be left unattended.

For those age 15 and younger, there are art contests available for four ages groups: age 5 and younger, ages 6-9, ages 10-12 and ages 13-15.

Each participant may enter one piece of art, and art can be submitted between 9 and 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the South Reunion Hall. All pieces must have been created before Festival but within the past three years.

First, second and third place winners will receive a gift card.

Hand games

Hand games is a traditional Potawatomi competition that goes back generations, and each Family Reunion Festival, teams compete on Friday night at the pavilion.

All you need to compete is a team of seven people. Two hiders from one team each hold a colored bead in their hands, which they pass back and forth behind their backs. The other team’s picker attempts to guess where the beads are. The hiders must stay in the circles painted on the ground but can still use tactics such as dancing and singing to distract the pickers.

Once the judge calls for hands forward, the picker uses a stick to indicate one of four guesses for the location of the beads. If they guess correctly, their team gets a point. If they do not guess correctly, the other team gets a turn.

Teams are eliminated until only one remains. The winning team receives $100 for each of the seven team members.

Don’t want to compete on a team? Don’t miss out on the auction beforehand, where you have a chance to try to bid on who you think will win. Each team has a flag that is sold in the auction. The winning team receives 25 percent from the auction, with the remaining 75 percent going to the person who bought their flag.

Find more information about hand games on the Hownikan Podcast at cpn.news/handgamespod.

Dance competition

During the powwow, there will be group, social and competitive dances. Competitive dance categories will include men’s traditional, men’s fancy/grass, women’s traditional and women’s fancy shawl/jingle dress.

When dressing for the dances, women should have legs covered by ankle-length skirts and should carry a shawl and wear a shirt that covers the shoulders. Slacks and a ribbon shirt are appropriate for men to wear. Everyone should wear close-toed shoes.
For more information about powwow etiquette, see the story on page 6.

Other competitions

There are several other competitions to enter throughout the weekend, so be sure to check your schedule. You could be the next winner of the fry bread making contest, or maybe your family will win one of the sports competitions. There’s softball, golf, volleyball, dominoes, checkers, chess, three-on-three basketball, archery and horseshoes. Children can enter a coloring contest, chess and checkers tournament and youth softball throwing.

Due to construction around the pond, there will be no fishing competition this year.
Prizes for some of those competitions can range from $100 for first-place individuals to over $1,000 for first-place teams.

Look for more details in the Festival registration packet.

CPN Family Reunion

Family Reunion Festival /June 27-29, 2025

CULTURE

Moccasins and closed-toed shoes in the arena are one of the basic etiquette requirements of the sacred space. Most dancers wear moccasins while they participate in Grand Entry or competition. Learn how to make a pair of traditional pucker-toe moccasins here.

The Family Reunion Festival weekend also includes classes on how to make different pieces of regalia, beading and other cultural activities.

Hand games remain one of the most anticipated and fun activities of Family Reunion Festival. Held on Friday night, this traditional family competition sometimes tops over 100 participants broken into groups of seven. Hear an explanation of the rules and learn how to play here.

POWWOW Etiquette

Find the 2025 Family Reunion Festival Guide here. 

CPN Family Reunion

Family Reunion Festival / June 27 — 29, 2025

The annual Family Reunion Festival of Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a celebration of Native culture for the Potawatomi. Festival is for CPN members and their immediate households (spouses and those dependents living in the home of the Tribal member).

Activities include Grand Entry, cultural classes, a dance contest, and General Council. Tribal elections are decided during the Family Reunion Festival. Find the 2025 Festival Guide here. 

Powwow and Grand Entry 

Proper attire honors the sacred space of the dance arena, ancestors, tradition, and fellow Tribal members, and it is mandatory for entering the arena.

Women should keep their legs and shoulders covered by wearing ankle-length skirts and a shirt that conceals the shoulders as well as carry a shawl. Men should wear slacks and a ribbon shirt. Everyone should wear close-toed shoes and move clockwise around the arena. Flip flops, tank tops and shorts are not permitted in the arena. Those not following the dress code will be asked by Arena Directors to remain in the stands.

Watch a short video about powwow etiquette here.

The powwow consists of group, social and competitive dances. Everyone who meets the clothing requirements can participate in Grand Entry. Competition dances include men’s traditional, women’s traditional, jingle dance and more. Learn more about powwow dances here.

Spectators should remain past the outer edge of the dance arena in the walkway and stands, respecting boundaries of the drum circle, dancers, and others. Respect the seating dancers have marked with blankets or other pieces of cloth and often their regalia. Respect all dancers’ regalia and personal space. Do not touch regalia without permission.

Cell phones are allowed in the arena; however, do not photograph or video any dancers without their permission, especially as they prepare for competition. Spectators should remain in the stands to take photos. Listen carefully to the emcee for times to put away all electronic devices.

Dogs are not allowed in the dance arena as it is a sacred space.

CPN Family Reunion

Summer Solstice Greetings

From June 2024:

Bozho mine Summer Solstice Greetings,

Mid-summer is upon is and it is at this time we honor our position on the good red road ... that path of the summer-winter axis of seasons. We are sitting, metaphorically, in the south: the red seat of love and abundance, and within the seed marriages that we so carefully gathered, sorted, chose to come forward with us and prayed over for good life. We sit now, with that abundance not only of spirit but the spirit intentions carried forward from ALL previous years. The Seed and prayer intentions that were held and carried forward not only by each of us, but also by previous generations, and then given gracious home by Sekmekwe, our Mother Earth.

Now is our time of celebration and meditation. Would each of us avail ourselves daily of the powerful blue butterfly mudra that seats our inner and personal path of duality and unity consciousness? When we do so, the demen berry of our hearts can refocus and strengthen, radiating out and saturating our beingness ... providing an ongoing positive reinforcing and restructuring of the cellular and mental elements of our entire mind, heart, body, and spirit construct. Immediately, to some extent, depending upon our personal evolutionary positioning.

Oh, my! What a time we are moving within. Be firm, constant, and of good heart. For we are always becoming ... within ourselves and also within the circle basket of tightly woven community.

Now, as we sit in the south ... let us recall that we are on the good red road facing north, the direction of the white spirit of winter. The summer fires we are integrating at this time will be the ones by which we will be warming ourselves in the coming winter. 

By the compass of the blue butterfly, on our right wing is the direction of the east, youth, spring, mental, and yellow gift. On our left wing is the direction of the west, medicine direction, mature life, water, and the color of black or dark blue. So, we sit al-ways within our personal place, al-ways with a place in the vast, beautiful, mercurial circle of life. We learn, grow, observe, and speak from a unique place, with our own wisdom and communications to share. Let us discover, build, enjoy, and be unafraid to show our original faces. And the blue represents the center of the medicine wheel wherein grows the tree of life, us.

As the medicine wheel talks this month, I would offer the black ash tree basket video teaching/ meditation. This video contains both the linear and circular teaching elements as the basket always emanates from a central, radial place ... as do we.

This video comes from my northern, 3-Fires Anishnabe-Potawatomi tribal background in Michigan. These teachings are truly simple reflections of the goodness and well-being attained through right connection with nature. That is about us and all living things, animate and inanimate ... now and forever more.

May the balanced light of life be always upon and within us. AHO!

Bama mine,
Dawn Woman

Summer Solstice Greetings

From June 2024:

Bozho mine Summer Solstice Greetings,

Mid-summer is upon is and it is at this time we honor our position on the good red road ... that path of the summer-winter axis of seasons. We are sitting, metaphorically, in the south: the red seat of love and abundance, and within the seed marriages that we so carefully gathered, sorted, chose to come forward with us and prayed over for good life. We sit now, with that abundance not only of spirit but the spirit intentions carried forward from ALL previous years. The Seed and prayer intentions that were held and carried forward not only by each of us, but also by previous generations, and then given gracious home by Sekmekwe, our Mother Earth.

Now is our time of celebration and meditation. Would each of us avail ourselves daily of the powerful blue butterfly mudra that seats our inner and personal path of duality and unity consciousness? When we do so, the demen berry of our hearts can refocus and strengthen, radiating out and saturating our beingness ... providing an ongoing positive reinforcing and restructuring of the cellular and mental elements of our entire mind, heart, body, and spirit construct. Immediately, to some extent, depending upon our personal evolutionary positioning.

Oh, my! What a time we are moving within. Be firm, constant, and of good heart. For we are always becoming ... within ourselves and also within the circle basket of tightly woven community.

Now, as we sit in the south ... let us recall that we are on the good red road facing north, the direction of the white spirit of winter. The summer fires we are integrating at this time will be the ones by which we will be warming ourselves in the coming winter. 

By the compass of the blue butterfly, on our right wing is the direction of the east, youth, spring, mental, and yellow gift. On our left wing is the direction of the west, medicine direction, mature life, water, and the color of black or dark blue. So, we sit al-ways within our personal place, al-ways with a place in the vast, beautiful, mercurial circle of life. We learn, grow, observe, and speak from a unique place, with our own wisdom and communications to share. Let us discover, build, enjoy, and be unafraid to show our original faces. And the blue represents the center of the medicine wheel wherein grows the tree of life, us.

As the medicine wheel talks this month, I would offer the black ash tree basket video teaching/ meditation. This video contains both the linear and circular teaching elements as the basket always emanates from a central, radial place ... as do we.

This video comes from my northern, 3-Fires Anishnabe-Potawatomi tribal background in Michigan. These teachings are truly simple reflections of the goodness and well-being attained through right connection with nature. That is about us and all living things, animate and inanimate ... now and forever more.

May the balanced light of life be always upon and within us. AHO!

Bama mine,
Dawn Woman

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk':

 

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk':

Let us now assemble the honoring gifts once again, the high and personal inner gifts of qualities which only we can know, and the gifts of the known and understood common tradition such as tobacco, water or candles; chocolate … fruits … flowers; special drinks or nectars; ritual paintings, foods, cornmeal … and gifts of inspiration and the moment … 

Open the soles of your feet and invite them to ‘pick up on’ the Mother Earth as she vibrates and breathes through our bodies and connects with the upward solar rays of her lover. They are our elemental parents. 

Go outside and lie first facedown, then turn onto your back … Draw an arm’s-length circle with a stick around you, think a little introductory offering … and sit there as unmoving as possible, except for the eyes, for at least twenty minutes … Notice and follow the breath until something else engages your attention. The natural world soon comes to accept our presence … It is best if no food/water/phone enters the circle or is in sight/smell/earshot … and the sitting is best done in complete solitude … Then, when you are ready, stand up, or crawl out, noticing which direction you entered, faced, and departed. Try to make them the same. Then, make grateful farewells, and go.

Honoring Plant People -- Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk':

The plant people go a long way toward offering and providing us, the two-leggeds and others, with the physical materials we need to live life ‘in a good way’. Plant fiber provides assorted fibers for the weaving of clothing, nets, mats, basketry, footwear, hammocks, housing … plant people share their bodies that our own might live, and their medicines by which we may maintain, heal, and restore health and balance. 

The green beings hold all wisdom and knowledge. Mother Earth and all beings that live upon and within her body have their own unique medicine ways and it is of these ways that we seek to learn the languages, uses, and songs. Our Mother is a sentient being with an evolutionary path of her own, and when sufficiently sensitized it is possible for us to feel her heartbeat through the soles of our feet and entire being.

Getegemen - Garden

Potawatomi ‘Garden’ Vocabulary:

Basket = gokbenaben
Bees = amoyuk

Beans = koje'suk

Bloom = jijen

Butterfly = memiki

Cabbage = e'shobuk

Cherries = siwswe'mnen

Circle = waye'yak

Cloud = ngwankot

Corn = ndamen

Cucumber = kokobe'

Dance = nimedi

Drum = de'we'gIn

Earth = sugmuk

Feast = wewesnakewin

Fire = shkote'

Flint Hill Grounds = shokinkik

Flower = washkone'to

Food = wisnawen

Fruit = washkbak
Full Moon = nibakises

Garden = Getegemen

Good Rain = mnogmowIn

Gourd = shishigwIn

Grapes = siwnwen

Grass = mIshkos

Honey = amo

Hot Peppers = wasgagIn

Indian Tobacco = nInse’ma

July/Month of Young Corn = We'shkitdaminkesis

Lightning = sawasmo

Milkweed = nInwezhe’k

Moon = tpukises

Mother Earth = Kumde’kwe’

Muddy = winkiwIn

Onion = shakwesh

Outside = sagec

Peace = e’tokmite’k

Plenty Potatoes = topeka

Plum = pokma

Potatoes = pInyak

Prairie = mskoda

Pumpkin = wapkon

Purple = we'je'pwate'k

Rain = kmowen

Sage = wabshkukbyag

Spider = aspeke' e'e'buk

Stars = nagosuk

Strawberries = demen

Summer = E'mnokmuk

Sun = kises

Sunset = e'pkishmok
Sweat Lodge = mdodmogumuk

Sweet Corn = wishpumnuk

Sweetgrass = wiingaashk

Sweet Potato = wishpupnyak

Thunderbirds = cigwe’k

Toad = mamkeci

Tobacco = se’ma

Trees = mtugwe'nIn

Turtle = mshike’

Very Dark (Outside) = gispuknya

Very Light (Bright Sunshine) = waseya

Warm Wind = shawnash

Water = mbish

Watermelon = ashktamo

Well-Being = matsowIn

Whole Kernel Cooked Corn = pakswayuk

Wild = pkoc

Wild Rice = pkocnomin

Wind = notin

World = otake’

Worm = mose

Heart of Mother Earth

The Heart of Mother Earth loves and cares for us all, all ways, all days ... now and forever more. 

AHO!
Grandmother

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk': The Mother Earth and all beings that live upon and within her body have their own unique medicine ways and it is of these ways that we seek to learn the languages, uses, and songs. Our Mother is a sentient being with an evolutionary path of her own, and when sufficiently sensitized it is possible for us to feel her heartbeat through the soles of our feet and entire being.

Meaningful Teachings of the Drum

Let us sit beside our inner fires, warm ourselves and listen to the heartbeat 

and song of Sekmekwe - Heart Beat of the Mother Earth.

-- Dawn Woman

Meaningful Teachings of the Drum

As First Nation’s People, we have always been told that the first drum beat we hear, is when we are inside our mother. That drumbeat we hear is known as the heart of our mom. In cultures all over the world, there is known to be a drum that is significant to them.

Drums have always been a part of human life since the beginning and have great importance in First Nation culture. There are many stories as to how the drum came to be but for now, we will focus on just a few for today.

Drum Teachings with Howard Walker:

Cree Elder Howard Walker Speaks About The Drum.

Artist Shares New Paintings and Star Knowledge (CPN)

Potawatomi artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey leaned into her creative side by painting and writing during the 2020 pandemic and lockdown. One of her paintings explores traditional star knowledge. It is a subject she shared with the community during an April 3, 2024, presentation at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center.

Pondésé Nëgos, or Winter Maker, focuses on the constellation known as Orion’s Belt. Pondésé Nëgos is most visible in the night sky during winter in the northern hemisphere, from January to April. The painting features a boy and girl in traditional clothing, standing by the Canadian River under the Tree of Life.

The constellation was named Orion’s Belt in the second century by astronomer Ptolemy, but its origins are even older to the Potawatomi. Unlike constellations named for Greek myths, Potawatomi constellations describe seasonal activities, such as the time when wild rice is harvested or the approach of spring.

As an artist, Crumbo Halsey hopes the painting will encourage Potawatomi to embrace the traditional star knowledge Nishnabé people have relied upon for hundreds of years.
Crumbo Halsey said as a child she observed the stars while her father pointed out the locations of the morning star, the evening star, the North Star and more.

“These are the first things that he began pointing out that I knew had importance, enough for him to point out and give me a teaching on,” she said. “That (taught me) I could follow my inner spirit of willingness and enthusiasm to learn and be connected with the mother earth and the father sky, sun and the Creator, which is the first, most beautiful and enduring gifts that the Creator gave us.”

Stars and origin stories

Stars represent the origins of the Potawatomi people.

“When we talk about the stars, we’re talking about origin,” Crumbo Halsey said. “We are people that are lowered down from the stars. The Seven Sisters, the stones that were lowered down from the sky people and the star people became the teachings for the stones that go into the sweat lodge ceremony. That’s one of the things that makes it so powerful is that they represent us and our star ascent or descent.”

Star stories may also answer questions about the afterlife.

“One of the reasons that we get a (Potawatomi) name, aside from it being our true identity that we live and work and grow in, is that when we walk on, the ancestors know how to call. They know what our name is, and they can call us on home. And we begin that journey to return to the stars,” she said.

“The star beings include not only where we came from, but the very, very deep and profoundly beautiful medicine of traditional teachings. Like, ‘Where do we go when we walk on?’ Well, we have a teaching on that.”

Crumbo Halsey said Indigenous societies all over the world have lived in regard to the stars, to know when to plant, when to harvest, when to prepare for seasonal changes and more. Constellation stories are tied to the Potawatomi way of life and relationships to nature.

“There are specific stars that will appear in the spring. One of them is the crane constellation that appears specifically between spring and fall,” she said. “The crane guides the geese going north, and they fly right under that constellation. And in the fall, when they migrate south, you can look up and they’ll be under the constellation of the crane.”

Potawatomi artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey gives a presentation on traditional star knowledge teachings at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in April 2024.

The story of the sucker fish moon represents an important sacrifice.

“Up in the north country, sucker fish appeared in March. They have a moon named after them because at the end of the winter season, the game was scarce, and people were hungry. A fisherman went out and cut a hole in the ice. The sucker fish spoke and said some of us are going to sacrifice ourselves for you, because we know that you’re hungry. They allowed some of them to be caught and they lived. We always remember the sacrifice,” Crumbo Halsey said.

Stars also hold importance when it comes to the Seven Grandfather Teachings.

“The Seven Grandfather Teachings are love, respect, bravery, honesty, wisdom, truth and humility. It is from these things, the star story and these Seven Grandfather teachings, that we come to know more about ourselves and define ourselves and our connection and relationship to all living things in a good way.”

Resources

Crumbo Halsey said there are several books available that offer more information. She recommends the works of the late Jim Thunder, a well-known Forest County Potawatomi elder, Nishinawbe Aski First Nation author Joseph Ogimaawab Sutherland and more. Many titles are available on Amazon or through tribal retailers.

“Amazon has several titles that deal with star stories and ‘creation myths.’ I don’t like the word ‘myth’ because it indicates there are questions about the validity of the story. I prefer ‘creation stories,’ but it will be under ‘myths’ on Amazon,” she said.

Combined with a smartphone app called Star Guide, Crumbo Halsey said the knowledge can be shared all year long.

“With Sky Guide, you can take the cell phone up in the night sky and point it to any star in the night sky, and the message will come up about what constellation we’re looking at,” she said.

She recommends using the Star Guide app in conjunction with the Star Chart created by Kyle Malott of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi. Malott’s chart features traditional Anishnabé constellations and their names. Access the Star Chart online at cpn.news/starchart.

Reclaiming knowledge

Crumbo Halsey is eager to share what she has learned with the Potawatomi community. During the year, she will share her knowledge through a series of articles in the Hownikan.

She has an optimistic view of reclaiming traditional knowledge.

“Some of us have shame that we weren’t raised traditionally and don’t know these things. We feel like we can’t access it, or we won’t be able to understand it, or someone’s going to laugh at us, or we’re going to fail in our endeavor. But, if we go with the seven grandfather teachings, we are armed with a shield. We are armed with a shield of truth,” she said.

For more information about her art and books, visit Crumbo Halsey’s website.

To read entire article: Artist shares new paintings/star knowledge (CPN)

CPN Family Reunion

The CPN FAMILY REUNION CHILDREN’S BOOK, published last summer (2023) by the Citizen Potawatomi Tribe of Oklahoma, is written and illustrated by Potawatomi artist Minisa Crumbo. A QR code is provided on the outside back cover. Available through Justin Neely at the Tribal Language Dept. or the artist, Minisa Crumbo.

Excerpt from CPN Family Reunion:

Hello, how are you all?   =   Bozho, ni je na jayek?

My name is Dawn Woman.   =   Wabaksekwe ndezhnekas.

I am enrolled Citizen Potwatomi.   =   Shishibeyek ndebendagwes.

I come from Mounds, Oklahoma.   =   Mounds, Oklahoma ndoch bya.

My clan is Thunder.   =   Jigwe o ndodem.

Collaboration Results in New Childrens Book (CPN)