2019 Native Traditions by Shawnee News-Star

2019

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

Table of Contents Cultural Heritage Center sets Tribe on path to its future..... 4-5 The team behnd the National Native American Veterans Memorial design..................................6, 8 Cultural Heritage Center remembers the Potawatomi Trail of Death....................................... 10-14 Oklahoma Native Artist: Traci Rabbit..................................18

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PUBLISHER Kent Bush

GRAPHIC ARTISTS Cheyenne Meadows Reita Easley Brooke Jones

COVER ARTIST Traci Rabbit

This magazine is published by The Shawnee News-Star in cooperation with The Tribal Nations of Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Chickasaw Nation ©Copyright 2019 GateHouse Media, LLC, 215 N. Bell St., P.O. Box 1688, Shawnee, OK 74802-1688, (405) 273-4200. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the publisher.

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Cultural Heritage Center sets Tribe on path to its future The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center held its official grand a year ago, revealing 11 new galleries. The first explains one of the Tribe’s oral traditions, known as the Seven Fires Prophecy. “Our oral traditions are our history,” said CPN Cultural Heritage Center Director Dr. Kelli Mosteller. “Before written word, this was how we passed our history down.” More than 1,000 years ago, a larger group of Algonquinspeaking people known as the Nishnabe included the Potawatomi. Eventually, the Nishnabe divided into the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Ojibwe tribes, becoming the Three Fires Council, with each tribe having specific duties. The Ojibwe, or oldest brother, are the keepers of trade; the Ottawa, or middle brother, are the keepers of medicine; and the Potawatomi, the youngest brother, are the keepers of the fire. “The Nishnabe were visited by seven prophets,” said Jennifer Randell, artist and CPN Eagle Aviary director. “Each prophet spoke of a fire — a prophecy or an era that they would endure. Each fire drastically changed their way of life.”

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Before coming to work for CPN, Randell studied art at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha. She used her training to help sketch and create artwork for The Seven Fires Gallery. “The prophecies really tell us who we were in the past, where we came from and the struggles our ancestors endured,” Randell said. “They also tell us who we are in the present and what we will be in the future.” The first prophecy, or first fire, urged the Nishnabe to leave their home and move west following the sacred Megis shell until they reached the land where food grows on water. Otherwise, they would be destroyed. Many Native American groups refer to North America as Turtle Island. Because of this, a turtle represents this journey. While traveling west, the Nishnabe stopped along the way, eventually reaching a large body of water. In the second fire, depicted by two otters, the Nishnabe people were without direction until the birth of a boy who showed them the correct path. “We are trying to evoke childhood, and otters, of course, are so playful, it captures that childhood feeling,” Mosteller said. The Potawatomi eventually arrived in the Great Lakes region, where they found wild rice growing on the water. This fulfilled the first prophecy, and the people knew they had reached the land meant for them. “The pike makes the wild rice beds their home, and it protects them,” Mosteller said of the carnivorous fish. “It’s where they lay their eggs, and that for us was the same thing the Great Lakes was going to be. In this fire, it’s saying that we would know that we

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Animal sketches represent each prophecy passed down through oral traditions which foretold eras the Nishnabe people would endure.

were in the place that we were supposed to be when food grew on water.” The fourth fire, represented by an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, foretold the Nishnabe confronting a light-skinned race. The prophet said this race would have a face of a friend or a foe, but they would have trouble differentiating between the two. “The snake that we chose is a species that is the only venomous snake that is indigenous to Michigan,” Mosteller said. “I think people in a modern context with a Christian outlook understand what a snake symbolizes. “We wanted to have that immediate symbolism that when you look at that and you’re talking about the face of a friend or the face of a foe, we know how this turned out.” The fifth prophet foretold a time of much hardship for the Nishnabe. The loss of old teachings, an abandonment of traditions and an acceptance of false truths caused long-term negative consequences still evident today. “In the fifth fire, we’re talking about a time when colonization is happening,” Mosteller said. “Europeans have arrived. There’s starting to be a lot of disjointedness. … The bear is a clan animal, but it is the healing clan. The bear represents the sacrifices made by the Potawatomi people to keep whole, healthy and together as a community. “ The deception of false promises continued in the sixth fire. Many children did not learn traditional teachings, causing the near extinction of Nishnabe culture and history. In the Potawatomi oral tradition of the flood, a single muskrat surrendered himself to save humankind and animals. “Muskrats have this deeper connection to them of selfsacrifice for your community,” she explained. “In the sixth fire, we’re talking about those elders who are weeping for the fact that we’re losing our traditions, and the children are being taken away to boarding schools.” The seventh prophet told of a generation when the Nishnabe language, teachings and culture experienced revival. Today, most believe we are in the Seventh Fire, and eagles are sacred to the Potawatomi because of the promise and hope they signify. “We are still here. We’re going to soar high,” Mosteller said. “We’re going to still do the things we need to do, and there’s almost that triumphant rekindling of that Seventh Fire to go back along the path of the ancestors. … These are teachings are lessons

that our ancestors passed down to us intentionally because they knew that we would need these ways to guide us. “You’ll see the animals throughout (the Cultural Heritage Center) so that you can refer back to what was all foretold. This was not just happenstance,” she added. “We knew that these challenges would be faced. Our teachings and our cultural traditions will carry us through, and in the end, we will see a better day.”

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The team behind the National Native American Veterans Memorial design Rosemary Stephens, Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune In June 2018 the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian unanimously selected Harvey Pratt’s design concept, Warriors’ Circle of Honor, for the National Native American Veterans Memorial. Pratt, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, along with his team, wife Gina Pratt and son Nathan Pratt said they were stunned when receiving the phone call informing them they had been selected. “The first day they told us the Smithsonian called right after and already had six interviews lined up. When they called us I didn’t have my glasses on and Gina said, ‘I think this is the Smithsonian.’ I ran over got my glasses and said yes it is. I was kind of surprised. He (Kevin Gover) called us up and said, ‘I have some good news and I have some bad news, which do you want first?’ Gina said well the good news and he said, ‘well the good news is you won, and the bad news is now you gotta do it,’” Pratt laughed and said they were both looking at each other stunned. Pratt’s design was first chosen as one of the top five out of 120 design submissions in an open blind competition and was selected the winner and announced June 26, 2018. And to think Pratt almost didn’t enter the competition … “The first time I heard about it was from Russell Willey. He said they were going to have a veteran’s memorial and they are sending some people around to talk to the Indians about it and asked me to go with him and listen. So we went to the Oklahoma City meeting, listened to what they were wanting and Russell kept saying, ‘Harvey you need to enter.’ I was like, ‘nah, I don’t want to do that. There are too many big companies with lots of money that will do that,” Pratt said. A short time later Willey called him again asking if Pratt wanted to go to another meeting being held in Shawnee this time. “He kept saying you need to submit something on this … well I got to thinking about it and thought, ‘well I guess I’ll send something in.’ I tell people I thought about it. I dreamed about it, you know slept on it and came up with an idea,” Pratt said looking over at his design team, Gina and Nathan.

How It Began

Jan. 7, 2018 was the official opening for blind submissions for the National Native American Veterans Memorial. There could be no names on the submissions, nor any name of any tribe on anything that was submitted. “I was number 81... that was it, all I was was number 81,” Pratt said. As Pratt sat at his kitchen table one evening, sketching on some old yellow notebook paper, he drew some rough designs and thought, ‘hey those are pretty good.’

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

“I asked Gina do we want a circle or do you want it to kind of go over and she said, real matter of fact, ‘it’s a circle Harvey.’” Pratt gridded out the design and when his son Nathan came by and stood looking at the sketch he told his dad the design needed to be animated. “I said animated? He (Nathan) said I know some guys who do that, let’s go talk to them. I’m thinking I can’t afford to pay someone to animate this thing,” but Pratt said okay, and they took the drawing to Skyline, Inc. “I showed it to him and he said yea we can do that. I told him I didn’t think I could afford him and he said don’t worry about it we’ll figure that out later.” Jeff Johnson of Skyline, Inc. animated the drawing making it appear as if it was already there, already built and in place. “I almost gave up on this project a couple of times because I thought there’s too much bull shit. Too many rules to follow, do this, do that, you can’t do this and you can’t do that and I thought to myself I don’t need that … but then Gina would look at me and say, ‘come on Harvey we’re already this far along, hang in there.’ I relied on Gina and Nathan to help me, this was a team effort and wouldn’t have happened without these two people,” Pratt said overcome with emotion. They received a call informing him he was a finalist, and it was at that point Pratt, Gina and Nathan developed their design team, “So our design team was me, Gina and Nathan and at that point we tried to work out everything they said we had to have, like an architect and a builder.” Again, Nathan stepped in and told his dad about architects Hans and Torrey Butzer, who took one look at their design and said, ‘we’re in the fight, we’re going to be with you on this.” Hans Butzer, originally from Germany and his wife Torrey, from Oklahoma, both designed the Murrow Building Memorial. Hans is also the Dean of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma (OU), and once they were on board the team they knew builders and other architects Nathan said. “He contacted two other architects who designed the 911 Memorial and one of them was in lighting and one of them was in water. Then he found a Creek girl who does landscaping architecture, so he put it all together, we did the 34 page written documentation, included all our exhibits and we mailed them in by March 1,” Pratt said. Pratt was soon notified to come to Washington, D.C. and make a presentation, where the design team, including Hans, made the presentation at the Smithsonian National Museum, traveled home, and began the wait. “They ended up notifying us on the 25th of June, released the news on the 26th of June and it’s been a mad dash ever since,” Pratt said.

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Design Idea

is a Marine Corps veteran serving during the Viet Nam war. One of the guidelines for the design He was born April 13, 1941 in the small concept was the design had to fit all 577 town of El Reno, Okla. to Anna and federally recognized Tribes, where all Oscar Pratt. Tribes could relate to it without it being “We all had Indian names and all the one specific Tribe. neighborhood kids knew who we were “I sat and thought about that and and our Indian names. When aunt Laura said what does all the Tribes have in would call us in at night, she would yell common … and what they have in out our Indian names and we would all common are the elements,” Pratt said. come home. Then you could hear her He stated all Tribes have in common still out on the porch calling our names the sacred fires, the sacred waters, the and we would say, ‘aunt Laura we are all wind and the earth, and all recognize right here’ and she would say, ‘I know the directions. but your little spirits are still out there “We all recognize those things and and I am going to call them in so nothing directions are so important to us. We happens to them.’” all have cardinal points, so we included Pratt attended El Reno Junior High until cardinal points and we recognize the his mother moved them to Bethany, southeast as white, the southwest as Okla. He said he hated the school in red as the Creator and yellow is the Bethany so his mother asked him if he northwest, Mother Earth, and then our Meet the team behind the National Native wanted to attend the St Patrick’s Indian ancestors are the northeast, so I included American Veterans Memorial design entitled, Mission School in Anadarko. all of that,” Pratt explained each concept He later would join the U.S. Marine “Warriors Circle of Honor.” From l-r: Harvey with the team’s design. “Someone can Corps, being sent to San Diego, Calif., come in here and if they don’t do prayer Pratt, his wife Gina Pratt and son Nathan Pratt. for boot camp. cloths they at least do sacred fires so “My uncle Charles was a World War II rather than do a statute I would include veteran, Marines, so he has always, always been in my head, even all those other things people recognize. I didn’t want people to just when I was little, and we would go see him when he was stationed in stand back and look at it, I wanted them to come into it and when I different places. Mother would always take us to go visit him. He was did the center part, I call it the drum, that’s where the water flows over a hero to me. I met other veterans and my mother would tell me to top of and down the side.” go shake their hands, all four of us boys growing up would do that. Nathan said his dad invited both him and Gina to critique each My grandfather would always speak of his son Charles, so when it step of the design, “so it was collaborative, he invited us and we were became time for me to join the military there was no other choice for constantly exchanging ideas, comparing perspectives and I think me but the Marine Corps. And I wasn’t quite sure what was going to that’s what ultimately refined it. It has been an honor to be a part of happen but I ended up going overseas with the Military Police,” Pratt the process,” Nathan said. said. Working collaboratively the team would define each and every Pratt said being in the military wasn’t hard for him because he had detail of the design, tweaking here and there to fit the vision Pratt saw attended boarding school. in his mind. “Boarding school we had rules, you had to clean, do your own “We talked about changing things and the drum. We talked laundry, make your bed, do your chores. All those things I did about sound. I wanted the people to hear the Flag Songs, the Veteran at boarding school I did when I went into the Marine Corps and I Songs, Honor Songs or Victory Songs playing very quietly above the thought, this ain’t bad,” he said laughing. whole inside area, where you can barely hear someone singing and Pratt’s love of the military and the honor he carries as a Marine the drum … not loud, just very softly and quietly as people come into Corps veteran helped in his decision to enter the design competition, meditate.” but none of them, Pratt, Gina or Nathan fully believed they would The ideas for the design, Pratt said came from the ceremonies win. when entering the tipi. “I didn’t see it coming, but once we were in the midst of it I “There are certain things you don’t do, you don’t run, you don’t became very passionate about the design and what we were doing, holler and I wanted this place to be like that. The same peaceful, and the process,” Gina said. “You know we’re busy, it’s chaotic but respectful way we are at ceremonies. Veterans can come in there and we are telling ourselves to enjoy the moment and not worry about the tell their war stories, War Mothers can come in there and pray for other things. To take things as they come, just be in the moment and their husbands, sons … be involved,” Pratt said. enjoy it because it’s a once in a lifetime thing that’s happening for all Closing his eyes Pratt seemed to go into the future describing of us. It’s bigger than we are.” what the inside of the memorial, from the footprints, to the sound of “We were so involved in this whole thing from the beginning that water, to the Eagle feathers and the prayer cloths, ‘we have a vertical we didn’t even think about where it was going. It didn’t dawn on us circle inside, to me represents the hole in the sky where the Eagle that after they said we were the finalist we got an email from somebody flies through and takes your prayers up there to the Creator and the and he said, ‘Harvey you guys will be there forever as long as there is an Creator sends them back down … it’s everlasting, it’s endless and that America your memorial will be there with the Washington Memorial the way I see this memorial.” and the Lincoln,’ and I looked at Gina and said, ‘Holy crap I never even thought about that.’ We went to bed thinking about this and we woke Harvey Pratt up thinking about it and it hasn’t quit,” Pratt said. Pratt, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, has been one The groundbreaking for the National Native American Veterans of the most well known Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations (OSBI) Memorial is slated for September 2019 and a grand opening in 2020. forensic artists in the state of Oklahoma and throughout the United The memorial will be an ongoing project, with changes along the way, States, retiring in 2017 after 50 years of service. He was sought out by but not to the core values instilled in the original design by Pratt and agencies across the world to help solve crimes, find missing children and his team. fugitives. Pratt is also well known across the country for his artwork, and

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Cultural Heritage Center remembers the P o tawatomi

Trail of Death

Federal officials called a meeting with the Potawatomi in the village’s church. Many in the Tribe saw this as an opportunity to tell the government that the Great Lakes region was their home and that they were not leaving, she said. “The leaders weren’t given that opportunity, though,” Dr. Mosteller said. “When they went into the church, the doors were locked. Three days later, everyone was rounded up. They had a volunteer militia of young men from around the area to ride out and gather up all the Potawatomi who hadn’t gathered at Menominee’s village.” U.S. General John Tipton’s men also burned the crops and wigwams, which made it difficult for the Potawatomi to stay. “The federal government, which is organizing this with the politicians in Indiana, knew that they didn’t care what Menominee, Pepinawa, Black Wolf and all these other Tribal leaders said,” Dr. Mosteller said. “They were going to get them out one way or another — whether it was through convincing or force.”

Wall of moccasins

Records show that most individuals removed during the Trail of Death lacked the proper footwear needed to make the journey. The gallery begins with a display of moccasins to recognize and honor the Potawatomi who endured the 660-mile trail. CHC employees worked with CPN’s Public Information to encourage CPN members nation-wide to help make the moccasins. Each pair represents 10 people who walked the Trail of Death. “The moccasins add a human element to it, especially when you start seeing the baby moccasins —the different sizes and styles,” said Blake Norton, CHC curator. “As you could tell, everybody was pretty unique on these journeys, but everybody kind of shared this experience, as bad as it was.”

Amidst an era of increased expansion by non-Native settlers into the United States’ western frontiers, a single piece of legislation codified federal policy on the topic of removing tribal people from their lands. On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. This legislation authorized the federal government to forcibly relocate Native Americans from their ancestral lands to reservations west of the Mississippi River. On Sept. 4, 1838, the Potawatomi began their involuntary 660-mile walk from present-day Indiana to present-day Kansas known as the Trail of Death. The Forced from Land and Culture - Removal gallery within the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Cultural Heritage Center highlights this tumultuous time in the Tribe’s history. “In the immediate years after the Indian Removal Act, each community was approached the treaty process with the knowledge that something was going to happen,” said Dr. Kelli Mosteller, Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center’s director. “The tribal leaders signed treaties. They tried to make it work. They tried to make amends and build a relationship with the government. They were essentially saying, ‘Okay, you can have some lands, but you cannot have it all,’” Dr. Mosteller said. “As the government kept coming for more and more, as the pressure began to build, the tribes began to lose their patience.” Chief Menominee led a resistance group of Potawatomi who refused to cede what little lands remained. Records indicate Menominee’s village grew from four wigwams in 1821 to around 100 wigwams and cabins by 1838. “The question on whether or not there was a treaty that would force our ancestors to remove was being debated,” Dr. Mosteller said. “Menominee and other village leaders had signed onto a treaty a few years previously that did not call for removal. It was a land cession treaty, and it specifically gave them Each pair of moccasins the right to stay on their assigned reservation symbolizes 10 Potawatomi forcibly lands in Indiana.”

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

removed on the Trail of Death.

Participants received a moccasin kit with all the leather and tools needed, written instructions and a step-by-step video. “The moccasin project was a really big community-building project,” Norton said. “For most people, I think this was the first time that they had ever made moccasins. It is really neat to see them put their own style and their different spin on it.” Lowell Ziegler, a CPN member from Garner, North Carolina, and his family contributed to the project. “While working on the moccasins, I kept thinking about the ones who were forced to march,” Ziegler said. “The ones who had to leave their homes, suffering harsh conditions and facing sickness were a lot tougher than most people today.” In 1997, Ziegler learned he is Potawatomi and a Burnett family descendant. A few years later, he visited Oklahoma and CPN. He looks for ways to stay involved with the Nation, even thousands of miles away. “I have often read articles about the Trail of Death. Not knowing my roots until later in life, I wanted to be able to do something to connect with my heritage,” he said. “This seemed like a good opportunity. I told my daughter, Jordan Dufresne, and she participated as well.” Ziegler read the instructions provided and watched the tutorial video. He then recruited his son to help create the pattern. “Making the moccasins was not complicated, but the process took a little longer than expected,” Ziegler said. “It was rough on the fingers, and I broke one of the needles that was included in the kit. I worked hard to try to keep everything as clean as possible while working on them. “I feel honored to have been allowed to participate and to have my moccasins on display,” he said. Dr. Mosteller said this project was an opportunity for CPN members to honor their ancestors and have a hand in the CHC’s reconstruction. “They like coming to the CHC and being able to point out something they made for the museum — it’s something to be proud of and to bring your family to,” she said. The Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. helped inspire the gallery’s design. “We saw all of the effects that were collected from prisoners in the concentration camps, and they have them on display,” Norton said. “They’re exhibited in a really visceral way, so we wanted to do something This display similar. represents the “There’s a small amount of prisoner wagons intricate detailing that’s very defining, U.S. officials and this display exhibits what the placed Potawatomi moccasins signify and the gravity of leaders in on the each pair,” he said.

Trail of Death.

Staff chose these shackles to remember the Tribal members placed under arrest during the forced removal.

660-mile trek

“We just wanted to utilize as much of the collection as possible,” Norton said, then motioned to the moccasins featured on the gallery’s floor. “The moccasins are a common theme here, and the messages that are conveyed in the gallery – we set them up as a procession that leads you through this period into Kansas. It provides a deeper metaphor.” The moccasins encourage visitors to take time in this exhibit by walking throughout the section, Dr. Mosteller said. “Our ancestors were making this long, 660-mile walk away from the homelands and an environment they understood. The oral traditions said that Creator meant for them to be in this place. They were being forced out of that to a place they do not understand; a place where clan animals do not live, the medicines do not grow, there aren’t as many rivers, and there aren’t trees,” she said. “Their whole world was turned upside down.” The lack of access to clean water on the Trail of Death caused many to die from typhoid and cholera, she said. “People were sick and probably going to die because they didn’t have medicine or the ability to rest,” Dr. Mosteller said. “This was not a well-organized removal. The health and wellness of the tribal members were not the government’s concern.”

Imprisonment

Under the direction of General John Tipton, federal officials placed Menominee and other leaders in prisoner chains and a jail wagon. CHC staff strategically placed a display case with shackles and a gun across from a wagon. “It’s jarring, but it’s also humbling,” Dr. Mosteller said. “There’s one thing to be told it was a forced removal, and it’s another to stand in front of chains and think about them going on your wrists or the wrists of your grandfather who probably couldn’t walk the 660 miles.”

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

Mskwa (It is red)

“When we were laying out what colors every section was going to be, one of the first ones that we did not have to discuss was the removal gallery,” Dr. Mosteller said. “We knew that this section was going to be red. “Red, whether you like it or whether you hate it, it’s not a neutral color. We chose this particular shade of red for many reasons. It fits in with cool but bold overall color tone that we chose for the CHC,” she said. “Does it evoke death? Yes, that’s what red does. That is a cross-cultural understanding and concept of red. There are other countries that have more defined understanding of what red means, but in virtually every culture, red has a very intentional connotation tied to it.”

Pick Your Path interactive

In this removal treaty era, different communities had varying responses, Dr. Mosteller said. “There were no good choices,” she said. “Some wanted to fight, and some wanted to resist in a more political kind of way by making alliances. Some didn’t want to deal with the government, and they didn’t trust them. They were moving ahead and going somewhere they thought they could be safe and live their lives on their terms without having to deal with the government trying to come in.” The Pick Your Path Interactive provides scenarios each Potawatomi group faced and allows CHC visitors to select what decisions they would have made based upon the information given. The interactive helps build a greater understanding of the complexities each Potawatomi group faced and learn about how the different Potawatomi communities came to exist. “Putting the interactive as the first thing you see after the moccasins is a good transition,” Dr. Mosteller said. “Treaties have consequences, and there were a lot of different results.”

George Winter

As a trained miniaturist, many of Winter’s works feature intricate details within a small space. The middle of the exhibit features an interactive where visitors can see his sketches and learn about the Potawatomi depicted in them. “I think having an artist who was in the place, in the time, and with the people sketching real scenes — that’s something that most tribes do not have. Being able to showcase these pieces, it’s a real boon to us to have these visual representations,” Dr. Mosteller said. “Of course, every artists is going to put their own interpretation on things, so we can’t take everything in the sketches as gospel.” The way individuals chose to present themselves to an artist and the artist’s rendering can provide a tremendous amount of insight, she said. “It says a lot about the relationship and how these individuals carried themselves — their entire persona,” Dr. Mosteller said. “I think we would be doing a disservice to Tribal members to not highlight Winter’s works and to make it available to them to have that key point of reference.” No other tribe has first-hand visual records of their removals, Norton said. “To have that record, be able to see each scene and

Kee-Waw-Nay

A colored George Winter painting wraps the wall behind the interactive and features tribal delegates and several Citizen Potawatomi ancestors at a meeting near the Potawatomi village of Kee-Waw-Nay. “What’s really neat about the mural is that it works hand in hand with the interactive,” Norton said. “There’s so much acute detail seen in the painting that you can see which individuals are participating in the removal negotiations and know what villages they come from. It helps illustrate how villages came together for these important meetings. It sets the scene as to the way meetings of this type would occur and what each representative looked like. They would have come in their Sunday best.” This painting also provides insight into traditional regalia. “This is a case study into the various forms of dress and how people put their own style into things,” Dr. Mosteller said. English artist George Winter documented meetings between various tribal leaders and the federal government and followed the Potawatomi on the Trail of Death. “Once word spread he was at many live negotiations and captured images, people began to commission him to create and report on these meetings — they wanted to remember it,” Dr. Mosteller said.

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The George Winter interactive lets visitors browse through all of his scenes and portraits.

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pieces that (Gayla) recreated to make a complete outfit,” Mosteller said. While researching archives in Washington D.C., Norton and Dr. Mosteller came across a green Potawatomi boy’s dress from Kansas. They captured pictures and began working with G. Mosteller to recreate the piece and find appropriate fabric. “There’s a Civil War line of quilting fabric, and I was able to find almost the exact same pattern as the dress in the archives,” Mosteller said. “The original was pretty tattered, but I was able to recreate the dress really close to the original. I even had the red Rick Rack on hand.” Mosteller said every time she walks through the removal gallery, she feels an ancestral presence. “I can hear our ancestors laughing, crying and moaning in pain,” Mosteller said. “I can be walking in the section from either end, and every time, there’s no denying I can hear and feel them.” Mosteller hopes her pieces encourage members to think about their own regalia. “Whether it’s ceremonial regalia or like the simple yellow camp dress on display, I hope Tribal members are inspired to create their own pieces,” she said.

Long-term implications

CPN tribal member and seamstress Gayla Mosteller’s pieces of regalia, inspired by George Winter images, provide insight into traditional garments.

understand what was going on, it’s impactful.” CHC staff chose several of Winter’s sketches to feature throughout this section and along the walls. They collaborated with CPN Graphic Designer Trey DeLonais to create layers and depth. “My process started with high-resolution scans and images, as high as I could get, so the final result was as crisp as possible,” DeLonais said. “The higher resolution images also make cutting them out easier.” DeLonais placed the images in editing software to select plants and individuals from Winter’s images. “I love the use of these cutouts in the museum, particularly in the removal gallery,” he said. “I think it’s a simple but effective way to bring attention to specific elements while also adding depth.”

Regalia

Staff recruited seamstress and Tribal member Gayla Mosteller to assist with creating regalia featured at the end of this gallery. “It’s a mixture of pieces from the collections that have been either acquired by us or donated to us over time and then

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In the end, more than 40 Potawatomi, mostly children and elders, died on the Trail of Death. “The physical removal is one trauma. The severing from the grounding of our homeland and all of the things that are entwined in that was a secondary trauma that I believe is much longer lasting,” Dr. Mosteller said. “It carries down through multiple generations — even those generations who were not themselves on that removal. They had to figure out how to live in the Great Plains as a woodland people.”

CPN Cultural Heritage Center 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Fri and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat 1899 Gordon Cooper Drive • Shawnee, Oklahoma potawatomiheritage.com 405-878-5830 Admission: Free For a list of upcoming CPN Cultural Heritage Center events and programming, visit www.potawatomiheritage.org

The CHC’s vast moccasin collection highlights Potawatomi art and history.

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Traci Rabbit

Traci’s work captures a spirit in the Native American woman that does indeed embody the best in female strength. From the proud loft of her chin to the strands of hair caught by the wind, she appears to weather all storms. Her paintings represent the way it feels to be female; to fly in the face of all that comes, with fierce dignity, energy and strength, but they also capture women’s ability to be gentle, yielding, kind and passionate. Traci Rabbit, daughter to Cherokee National Treasure & Internationally known artist Bill Rabbit and mother Karen Rabbit, was born at the Claremore Indian Hospital and grew up in the Pryor area. She says quite bluntly, “my family has always been close and i had a wonderful childhood! I grew up attending my Dad’s art shows. When I was in junior high, he began flying me to his important shows like Santa Fe Indian Market and IACA. I never considered the possibility of becoming an artist because in my mind he was the greatest and I knew I couldn’t compare to him in that arena. However, I enjoyed doing art and began winning art awards in the 1st grade in the rest is history.“ Traci attended Northeastern State University, which orignally was the Cherokee Female Seminary, receiving a BA in Business Administration in 1993, the first in her family to attend and graduate college. Her desire was to work for the BIA or for her Cherokee Tribe. “My Dad started selling my paintings to galleries when I was in high school and college. Upon graduation, I started attending art shows with my Dad.” Somehow, the art business consumed her and she has never looked back. Her degree has been invaluable to their business, which consists of a full gift line. Traci’s art career is going great; a career that includes her family. The Rabbit family produces

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the gift line from the conception of the original art all the way down to the production and packaging, so everything is Native American made. This is something the family takes great pride in when attending retail and wholesale markets. She is blessed to be able to work on her art while sharing time with family. Keeping one foot steeped in tradition and the other exploring the possibilities of applying modern technology to her art and business. After the passing of her father in 2012, she continues to live in the same area her family has been since the removal of the Cherokee people to Oklahoma. She says, “Without God and the support of my family, none of this would be possible.” Rabbit Studios P.O. Box 34, Pryor, OK 74362 918-825-3716 • buyndnart@sbcglobal.net www.billandtracirabbit.com

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