Basketball on the rez

One of the best things that can happen to grandparents is to see grandchildren develop in the athletic arena, especially when sports have been so much a part of their own lives. Age and aching bones might have stopped their enjoyment and progress on the courts and softball fields, but competitive juices refuse to go away for many parents, grandparents and great grandparents. To see it carried on in grandchildren is a truly rewarding time.


In our case, we played softball for years then that slacked up in time. Our oldest daughter took up fast-pitch and she really worked at it and turned into a top pitcher. We hauled her to games all over Northeast Kansas and Missouri. She won a state championship while playing at Lake Shawnee and she went on to play for one year at Highland Junior College where she set records for wins and strikeouts.

And much later youth basketball started to gain popularity on the Potawatomi reservation and our grandchildren took up the sport although we would have sooner they played softball. But the basketball fever spread to the old folks as well. Our oldest granddaughter Tara was a starter on the Royal Valley High School team for three years. She started out slow but made tremendous progress. In one game, she had 23 points, 6 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 assists. At 5'9", she was tall for a guard and had quick hands. In another game, she scored 35 points against Nemaha Valley and that’s the most points I ever witnessed from a girl or a boy at the high school level. She ended up first team all-league for her last two years.

The stands suddenly become a big social event and visiting was on the upsurge. Relatives of the players marked their calendars and load up their cars to see the basketball games. We did the same thing as with our daughter, we went to almost every game no matter where it was at. Our grandson Nyeh Waskeh played in high school and sometimes it was a challenge but we made most of his games too. Nyeh Washeh enjoyed playing basketball with his many friends and scored a high of 17 points. We watched them both develop, learning the fundamentals and they enjoyed playing the game. High school basketball is a level where fun is still there. A $4 entry fee to see your grandchildren play is more than worth it.

Our routine was similar every week. We went to work, came home, change into comfortable clothes and loaded up Maynard Potts, who at the time was 90 years old, and whoever else was riding on that particular day, and head off to Royal Valley High School games. He enjoyed watching Tara and Nyeh play basketball – a real fan. After paying the entry fee and eating the ball-game meal of hot dogs and popcorn, we sat in the stands and wait for the game to start. The only regret is that there weren’t more food choices at games. It was good times though.

Tara and Nyeh both graduated from high school. Tara went on to two years of junior college where it was no longer fun and she eventually married and moved away to California. Now we go to our youngest grandson, Pat ko shuk’s basketball games at the Whitson Elementary School on Saturday mornings. I about jumped off the bleachers when he scored his first two points. It was the same feeling I had watching my daughter and my other grandchildren play, a feeling that I can’t explain but I’m glad I was there. The whole experience is something I wouldn’t trade for anything.



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A chance to repay Indian people

Venita Chenault-White, a member of of our tribe struggled with career choices as she neared completing a M.S.W. in Social Work in 1990.

Deep down she wanted to teach and give something back to Indian people, but figured landing a teaching position would take a few years so she went to work at a substance abuse center in Kansas City. A year later an unexpected call came from Haskell Indian Junior College that launched Chenault-Whites teaching career. The school was in the midst of revitalizing their social work program and would soon undergo a name change to Haskell All Nations University. Attendance at the largest Indian university in the United States averages 850 students per semester, representing 140 Indian nations and 40 states.

Making that career change was not easy since she had some trepidation about working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs - an agency with a long history of working against the interests of Indian people - but an older uncle said,

“You can stand outside these institutions but changes to the system must come from the inside.” Chenault-White took his advice and has had an interesting and rewarding teaching experience.

“I feel like I have made a change in the system by preparing Indian students to go back into their communities to make a positive impact.” And most of all, it was a chance to repay the Indian people for their many cultural teachings over the years. She has incorporated these teachings into her classes when it is appropriate.

“Indian people share a core philosophy - a respect for the Creator and a recognition that we are all related,” said Chenault-White. Chenault-White also states that learning and teaching can come from many sources including young people. “I have a chance to learn from the richness of each of their cultures.”

In her classes, Chenault-White integrates knowledge developed by Indian scholars and Indian methods developed in Indian communities. She has a strong belief that the solution to Indian problems lie within these teachings. It is disheartening, for Chenault-White, to see many of her students disconnected from their cultures and sometimes in a state of hopelessness, but she has faith in each one of her students and can see unlimited potential. Chenault-White disagrees with the prevailing “wisdom” of many high school teachers who have said or shown in their actions that little needs to be done to prepare Indian students for college because they aren’t going anywhere.

This practice hurts the Indian college student and in turn the Indian communities. Chenault-White wants to change those perceptions by showing students she cares. Did she make the right career choice? Although some people discouraged her from going into the social work field, Chenault-White relied on her convictions.

“It’s important to do what you want in life.”

A Potawatomi Journey to Iraq

For Curtis Keltner, a 23 year old tribal member, son of Roberta Keltner and grandson of Theresa Asselin, arriving in Iraq was a true cultural shock and living in a war situation for a year only added to the shock.


People in the hometown of Saddam Hussien, Tikrit, were considered loyalist of his regime. Hussein moved to Baghdad after rising to the presidency of Iraq but made sure his old home was taken care of and the town composition was mostly friends of his and relatives. It was evident to Keltner why the people there hated the United States Army. Iraqi’s believed in Jihaad and the concept of a Holy War. By killing non-Muslims or die trying then this act ensured a place in heaven, which is why there were so many acts of sucide toward the United States military during Keltner’s year there.

Keltner said the people were poor, lived in mud huts, and had no running water. The children were nice and walked up to the soldiers and shook hands but would always ask for a dollar. Seeing these poverty conditions in an oil rich country such as Iraq made Keltner wonder why it worked that way. In the country of Iraq each town had a sheik, a millionaire who lived in big houses or mansions. He was considered the town leader and the title of sheik passed from one generation to another. Money equaled power in Iraq.

Before Keltner went to Iraq in March of 2003, the military instructed the soldiers in classes not to look at the Iraqi women because that would cause unnecessary grief for the women. The women were obedient to the men and worked in back-breaking jobs in the fields. The married women dressed in black robes from head to toe. The men in Iraq were allowed to have up to six wives, but only if they could afford them. Women in Iraq society are considered property. A man had to pay the father of a woman money or in a number of sheep, basically buying his daughter. The people of Iraq consumed no alcohol or ate pork and would pray up to five times a day. At certain times of the day, music would come from the local mosque and the people would stop whatever they were doing and fall to their knees toward Mecca and prayed.

What brought Curtis Keltner to this oil-rich but desolate and poor country? He described it as a love of country and life growing up listening to many military stories from his dad, who served 13 years in the army, and from his mother’s side. All of these childhood stories made Keltner determined to follow in his relatives’ footsteps and joining the army seemed the right thing to do for him.

Arriving in Iraq during the hot season where temperatures rose to 140 degrees only added to the initial cultural shock. These feelings of pity toward the poverty conditions soon dissipated when his Alpha Company were fired upon in their daily patrols around Tikrit.

Instinct and all the intensive military training kicked in during these attacks. The attacks were mostly guerrilla tactics where 2 or 3 Iraqi would fire upon the Americans and then run away. That’s the way they fought said Keltner It turned into a waste of time when his unit would have to go search for the attackers. Keltner said nothing happened 90% of the time on these daily patrols then out of nowhere an attack would happen when they least expected it. It was only afterwards, that they thought “Oh my God, I could have died.”  He described the soldiers in his Alpha Company as good people who saved his life on more than one occasion with their courage. “They had your back and you had theirs” as Keltner described it.

Keltners message today is: even if you don’t support American war policies at least support the troops because they are doing it for their country.

An old Potawatomi veteran's story

As with most obituaries, most of a person’s life is left out for reasons of space and cost, and this is true with the Maynard’s Potts obituary. Here is an account of what could have been included if we lived in a perfect world.

  He was part of what Tom Brokaw called the “greatest generation.” Brokaw said they survived the Depression; served the country during World War II; and become involved in their communities as volunteers, elected officials or church leaders.
  Maynard did exactly that. During the Great Depression, years of hardship had taught him and the people on the reservation to depend on important survival skills, such as an ability to improvise. Not to be overlooked were a few welcome federal work programs that became the key to managing in a severe economic period of this country.
  How did Maynard and the Potawatomi people weather these hard times? They only had to look to the no-so-distant past and remember the removal period still fresh in the minds of many elders by virtue of tribal stories preserved by the oral history tradition. The lessons of the past would help the Potawatomi overcome adversity. Inner strength and character would help the people on the reservation cope with the trauma of the times. Yes, adversity has a way of building character, but it also prepared men like Maynard and many others who would serve in the upcoming war. Surviving the Great Depression was just one chapter in his life and it did a fair job of preparing him for the next huge event in his life.
  His ascent into World War II started when he left the United States from San Francisco January 23, 1943, aboard the troop transport Nordom. As they passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, a man in the back of the boat shouted, “Golden Gate, Golden Gate, be back in ‘48.” Of course, the war didn’t last that long, but it seemed like an eternity for these young men. The troop transport traveled one month and one day to get to the war zone in New Guinea, a tropical island in the Pacific north of Australia. The unit aboard the 532nd Amphibian was attached to the Ninth Division of the Australian Army which had just returned from two to three years of combat in Africa.
  It was because of the bravery of the Australians on several occasions that Maynard was able to survive the war. They were ready to fight under any circumstances and showed no fear. In April 1943, the American unit went to Milne Bay, New Guinea. During the first two weeks of which they went through 118 bombings by the Japanese. The bombing started at six a.m. and ended 20 hours later at two a.m. Because of the lack of air support, many Americans died during those initial days.

  After the Allies finally wrested New Guinea from Japanese control in March 1944, Maynard boarded a boat to the Philippines in what was called “island hopping,” or seizing key islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean. With this strategy, the Allies used each island as a springboard to attack the next island. The Philippines had been under Japanese control since May of 1942, and the Allies hoped to recapture it, cut off Japan’s lines of communication with its overseas bases, and set up bases from which to attack Japan.
  While on this first “island hopping” boat ride, Maynard saw Japanese suicide planes take out three American ships one day and seven ships the next. Many Americans died there. It was hard to be at sea or on land because no place was safe. Throughout the war, Maynard was to see men wounded and killed, and he was to experience countless nerve- wracking bombings. But the hardest part was the fear and never knowing what would happen next.
  His life after the war was far from easy. He struggled with the aftermath and as is the case with many combat veterans, their actions are never fully understood and for some people who could never fathom the scars of war, it is simply too easy to judge. Today it is called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but back then, veterans had to deal with it the best they could.
  For Maynard Potts, there are more accomplishments in his life, although being a combat veteran would have defined his life by itself; there is more to his life than that. Again those accomplishments never make an obituary. Maynard and Coralene Keesis married October 2, 1942 and raised a large family in definite hard times. To cope with those hard times and the nightmares of war, one of the constants in both their lives was their absolute dedication to the Indian religion of the Potawatomi. She cooked at home and at the services themselves. As she once said, “being a member of the religion involves more than sitting there looking pretty,” and she was right. There is so much work to be done and it has to be shared by all to make any religion work.
  For years, Maynard went over to the Drum Building and cleaned it up before the services or went out and cut wood. As a respected elder, he didn’t have to do that but he did. Both he and Coralene led a long life and will be remembered for their work to make the Potawatomi religious life better. Maynard had a gift and that was the ability to sing the songs of the religion; he worked tirelessly with younger members to learn the songs and help others learn the Potawatomi language. Maynard once said that when he survived the war, he was going to dedicate his life to his mother’s religion and he did.
  Maynard made a point to attend every religious service he could on the reservation, rarely missing until he became sick in the winter of 2007-8. That is called dedication in any circle. He believed in the power of prayer and when he was close to leaving this life a couple of times during his hospital stay, his family held had a prayer service for him. He pulled through those two critical times. The power of prayer made it possible for him to stay with his family for a few more precious days.
  He also had an extraordinary memory and told of events long ago and could remember so many Indian names. Many young people, and some not so young, would find their way to his door to seek out advice on religion, Indian names and maybe to hear the stories of old. Hopefully people will remember what he told them.
  When he died in April of 2008, after surviving 92 winters, Maynard had one of the largest funerals ever on the Potawatomi reservation. The Drum Building was full with people paying their respects to a man who helped others aplenty in his life. During this service, many positive words were spoken about his life-long dedication to the religion and it was all true. During some funerals, it is rare for people to get up and talk to share their feelings, but not this time. This was an indicator of the influence Maynard Potts had on the people of the Potawatomi reservation. He deserved the positive service.
  It wasn’t all serious though. Maynard was remembered for his baseball abilities, being a number one fan of the local fast-pitch teams, and to see his granddaughter Tara play basketball in high school and her first year in college. Because of inclement weather, he missed the biggest scoring game of her high school days, when she scored 35 points against Nemaha High School. Nonetheless, he enjoyed going to the rest of the games.
  Maynard was the Number One fan of Kansas University Basketball. He stayed home and watched every one of those game on t.v. When they weren’t on, he watched baseball on ESPN. He often talked about the young Winnebago pitcher Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees and the Navajo infielder named Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox.
  Maynard died a few days before KU beat Memphis 75-68 in the National Championship game. In fact, the wake occurred at the same time as the big game. The large crowd at the wake were huge KU fans too, but they went to the funeral instead of watching the game on t.v. This showed the deep respect Maynard had in this community. Of course, that didn’t prevent people from checking their cell phones for updates when they went outside. He would want it that way and everybody knew he was keeping up on that score too.
  All in all, Maynard and Coraline left a legacy that their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can be proud of and an example to follow. For the rest of the people on the reservation neither will be forgotten.

The Story of the Three Fires

Potawatomi tradition states that the Odawa, Ojibwas, and the Potawatomi originally were one tribe. The members of the “three fires” shared a similar way of life. They were also called the “three brothers,” with the Potawatomis being considered the younger brother.


A Potawatomi legend said the tribes braided three small trees together to signify their brotherhood. It is said that this tree has grown together over the years and is full-grown today in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Loyalties between the three tribes ran deep, and they often came to each other’s defense in times of war, much like a brother would come to aid of another in a fight. So it is with the history that this coalition was solidified over the early years. Coalitions such as this were to become an essential element to the tribe’s social fabric throughout the early years and were to serve the tribe well in those times. In the years of prolonged conflict, territorial expansion and other common goals of advancement, these coalitions were absolutely necessary and utilized heavily to their benefit.

Still another aspect of this coalition was that the Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwas enjoyed a particularly close trade relationship. Each tribe had a certain function to keep the alliance strong. The Odawa were the “Trader People” responsible for providing food and supplies. The Ojibwas were the keepers of the faith and kept the sacred teachings. The Potawatomi were in charge of the ceremonial fire burning. It was around this fire that nations came together in peace and made decisions regarding the welfare of all people.

All three groups spoke related languages that linguists classify as part of the Algonquin tongues. It was said this language could carry an Indian traveler across more than a thousand miles of land from east to the west in the Great Lakes, and they could understand the other tribes enough to get by and to manage.

In time, the coalition with the Odawa and Ojibwas ended when the Potawatomi went out on their own and built a new “fire,” which in Indian parlance means to set up as an independent tribe. The Potawatomi (People of the Place of the Fire) may thus owe their name to these circumstances. Yet remnants of the tribes had interwoven over the years, which is why the tribes still retain much of the same characteristics and language today, despite being located in vastly different locations.

Life fairly rough here in the 1960-1990s

Poverty on the reservation was in a similar condition as when many Vietnam veterans had left, and it too had worsened. The reservation was a classic example of how the wartime expenditures had affected the domestic program of the United States. Jane Priwer, a writer, gave a vivid description of the reservation condition in the 1970s: “They are not in good shape today. Their reservation is a desolate place, splintered by unpaved, muddy roads and inhabited by only a few of the oldest and poorest members of the tribe. The rest are in the cities. Average income is about $2,500 a year, unemployment around 50 percent and the high school drop-out rate 44 percent. “

In addition, the tribal government had a $6,450 budget for the year of 1972. This low sum was supposed to be enough to govern the affairs of the tribe. All of these financial figures translated into a period of abject poverty for the tribe, but not much different than the rest of the country. The United States and the reservation were all feeling the backlash of Vietnam, a war that cost $150 billion.

While this analysis of the tribal financial condition was true, the reservation was home, and, as so many times in the past, the tribal members made the best of the situation. Tribal members worked in the surrounding towns and cities in construction fields, packing houses, garden nurseries and whatever temporary employment was available.

In some family situations, as many as 12 children lived in a small four-room house with no running water. But those homes were relatively happy, and food was always available. It was a dire necessity for the children to leave home at an early age, so it was not uncommon for young people to get married at the ages of 18 or 19 and move into apartments in the surrounding towns and cities like Holton or Topeka. Marriages usually lasted a long time simply because there was no room back home if it didn’t work out.

Potawatomis learned self-sufficiency at a young age because of the economics of the times. But the reservation was always home, and young couples often came home to visit or to attend social events.

Grim statistics showed the Potawatomi had a death rate about twice as high as the state average and a birth rate three times the state average as well as an infant mortality rate two times the average during this period. Dr. Patricia Schlosser, who worked in the children’s clinic in Holton, noted how the infant mortality rate is one of the most sensitive indexes of the general health of a people. Another physician who worked with the tribe said the life expectancy was only 43 years of age. He said many Indians in the area had major nutritional problems.

Elizabeth Munoz stated, “Indians have every problem that the ethnic and low income person has plus their own cultural problems, including a sense of pride. It’s harder in many cases to admit they do need help.”

Where the average tribal member benefited the most was the new housing that came to the reservation in the late 1970s. The Department of Housing and Urban Development authorized the building of 36 homes in a housing site. A few were built on scattered home sites. In time, a total of over 90 homes were built on the reservation. Housing was desperately needed for the growing population. Yet there was opposition to this concept.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, many tribal members looked upon the new housing as another ploy to get the land. It was a fear that tribal members would be evicted for non-payment of rent (based on income), and non-Indians would then move in and own the tribal land. It was a justifiable fear, but something that did not transpire. Federal housing programs on many reservations have been resented because the houses are planned on the basis of Western values—geometric lots, houses close together and no place for animals while the Indian people strongly prefer their own traditional housing patterns: houses scattered over the land just within hailing distance or houses designed for small clusters of related families. This pattern was rooted deeply in the history of the tribe.

On the positive side, the new houses meant coming home to the reservation and no longer having to live in surrounding communities where discrimination was an accepted fact. Now the people had the opportunity to live among their families and friends. Yet, it was close to a self-imposed segregation.

All in all, jobs were scarce, housing limited, roads were horrible and adequate office facilities were non-existent, so it was fairly grim here in the 60s to the 90s.

A fast Potawatomi history lesson.

Over the years the Potawatomi have collected many captivating stories to tell, at every bend, twist and turn of our history.

The stories of old state that we were originally located on the eastern sea board and slowly migrated westward over the years - this migration was at times voluntary while at other times very much against our will. Nonetheless, we were an independent group and lived off the bountiful natural resources of the Great Lakes. What we couldn't catch in the lakes or hunt in the forests, we acquired through trade with other tribes and later with the non-Indians. For the longest time we enjoyed life free from outside influences and prospered.

After the first contact with non-Indians in 1641, land became a central issue that intensified with the expansion of the 13 colonies or "13 Fires." As this expansion started to happen the Potawatomi lost some of their autonomy and freedoms. Non-Indians wanted the land for mines, timber and the growing number of towns, cities and ports. During this time of advancing settlement, the Potawatomi people held no real concept of land ownership. Their beliefs taught them that land belonged to all living things alike. However, the U.S. Government, in its first treaties with the Indians, established boundaries for tribal land. In the numerous treaties that followed, known as "cession treaties," the Potawatomi agreed to sell land to the U.S. Government. Those early concessions soon led to more drastic policies.

The 1830 Removal Act was a governing policy of the United States government. The policy revolved around a dream that the Indian "problem" could be eliminated forever by persuading the eastern Indians to exchange their lands for territory west of the Mississippi. Each band has their own story to tell about the removal and those stories are unique to them and are best told by them. As for the Prairie Band, we made temporary stops in Missouri's Platte Country in the mid-1830’s and the Council Bluffs area of Iowa in the 1840’s. The tribe controlled up to five million acres at both locations. After 1846 the tribe moved to present-day Kansas. Although the area lacked the beauty of the Great Lakes, the circumstances of removal left the tribal people little choice. At that time, the reservation was thirty square miles which included part of present-day Topeka. It is our contention that the land we lost during this period contributed to the greatness of this country. In the following years, land holdings dwindled further and life toughened for the Prairie Band. At times it seemed hopeless, but we persevered.

For the first part of the 20th century the Potawatomi subsisted on farming, hunting and trapping, wage labor, and leasing of their lands. The band suffered greatly during the Great Depression and accompanying drought during the 1930’s. Things didn’t get any better after the wars came along. Many tribal members went and fought in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. They went to Korea, Vietnam and fought in modern day battles in the Middle East. Some died, some were wounded and some suffered for many years after, but they have achieved a place of honor in our society. We are free today because of what those veterans have done for us. Again, it was a difficult time but members persevered and survived.

The tribes in the ensuing years struggled living with abject poverty and racism however, because of strong leaders, were able to survive something close to termination. It took time to regroup as a tribal unit. Government programs came and they helped, but never were the true answer. The introduction of gaming activities has initiated an improvement in social, educational and cultural leadership programs which has led to improvement in the quality of life among our people.