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MAY

Në MnokmêK & Ki Gish Zisbakwtokémen

On Saturday, April 22, citizens and staff gathered at Rodgers Lake Campground to celebrate Në MnokmêK & Ki Gish Zisbakwtokémen which means Gifts of Spring and We Finished Making Sugar.

MnokmêK & Ki Gish Zisbakwtokémen is a collaborative event supported by Education, Center of History & Culture, and Kowabdanawa odë kė.

Attendees braved the not-so-spring-like-weather and enjoyed Earth Day and Arbor Day activities and education, giveaways, and a celebratory end of sugar season feast.

Chairwoman’s Corner

Bozho. Migwėtth for reading the May edition of Pokégnêk Yajdanawa.

It’s always special when we can celebrate our Pokagon Youth, and on Saturday, May 6, we can do just that. Pokagon Youth and Dowagiac High School student athletes, Devin Rock and Josh Winchester-Jones have been selected to play for Team Michigan Basketball in the 2023 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) which will take place July 15-23, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

To support the team’s expenses to travel to Canada, a fundraiser is scheduled. The Pokagon NAIG Team Michigan Fundraiser Event will take place at Southwestern Michigan College’s 1st Source Bank Fieldhouse located at 58900 Cherry Grove Road in Dowagiac. Doors open at noon with games beginning at 1 p.m. The event is open to the public and attendees are encouraged to bring their family and friends to enjoy a day of basketball, 50/50 drawings, $1 halfcourt shots, raffles, food, and fun!

Team Michigan players and their families will be staying in the cabins at Rodgers Lake Campground during their visit. NAIG Team Michigan Basketball is an Inter-Tribal roster consisting of players from five Tribes throughout Michigan, including the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Sault St. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Each Tribe will be hosting their own fundraisers for their Team Michigan participants.

I hope you and your family and friends can come out on Saturday to the fundraiser – it's free to get in! Let’s show our youth that we’re behind them on their journey to the North American Indigenous Games.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of serving as a panelist at the 6th Annual Women in Tribal Gaming Symposium held at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona. I was surrounded by other female tribal leaders from across the United States. We spoke about leadership and how to embrace an intergenerational point of view. There are always take-aways that I look forward to sharing with our own Tribal Nation.

Many of you may have seen that our website (not the Citizen’s Portal) received a facelift. Our former website was missing the calendar feature and it was difficult to make you aware of all the events going on in our community. The calendar feature is located by clicking on Events in the top menu bar. You may choose to view the calendar as a list, or a monthly view. You can also add events to your calendar and see the full event flyer with details.

Communications is working to fix and glitches or broken links. If something is missing or doesn’t seem to make sense, please email the communications team at Communications@PokagonBand-nsn.gov and they will investigate it. In all, our website consists of more than 140 pages, so your patience and feedback are appreciated.

I hope you’ll be able to join our local Potawatomi Tribes as we call for justice by showing up for the MMIP March in Grand Rapids on Friday, May 5. Our tribes are hosting the second MMIP March through downtown Grand Rapids to observe National Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Day. The March begins at noon. Details can be found on our website calendar.

In closing, please mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, May 27 – 28, and join your friends and family at the Ggaténmamen Gdankobthegnanêk Pow Wow at Rodger’s Lake Campground. Again, you can find all the details on our website calendar.

Until next month, please take time to enjoy your friends and family, and spend some time in our great outdoors enjoying the gifts of spring.

Migwėtth,

Rebecca Richards Tribal Chairwoman

Annual Veterans Memorial Golf Outing

Funds raised for the Pokagon Potawatomi Veterans Society Military Emergency Relief Fund are distributed by the Pokagon Bode´wadmik Ogitchedaw Board. Scan the code for more details and to register.