Shawnee center blends history, modern life

The veteran who served in Vietnam. The man telling the emotional saga of his ancestors. The accounts of those forced to travel the Trail of Tears and the Trail of Death.

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's facility on Gordon Cooper Drive has become more popular, and busy, in the two years since it opened. It is a place for telling stories and the preservation of those stories, of viewing artifacts and safeguarding those pieces of history.

"Honoring our families and our veterans is the mission here," said Cindy Stewart, facilities manager and executive assistant to the director.

In the center's total 36,000 square feet of space, visitors use high-tech methods to peruse ancient history. In the Long Room, which also serves as meeting space for some 700 people, the Veterans' Wall of Honor is the main attraction. Ten display cases contain uniforms and other memorabilia of tribal soldiers who served from the Civil War to today's Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Computer kiosks allow people to search 650 names of veterans and their service. Pictures of 240 of those veterans are available.

A quotation along the ceiling, author unknown, tells the tribe's philosophy: "Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but disgraceful are those who having them forgets."

Jon Boursaw, executive director of the Cultural Heritage Center, is honored for his own military service. He said the veterans' wall, along with the center's mission of preserving veteran and tribal stories, has been a healing and learning experience, both for natives and non-natives. The more that people discover what takes place at the center, the more stories and photos they provide, he said.

Much of the rest of the facility is devoted to the display of that history. A tree-lined walk takes visitors into an area featuring more photos, artifacts and historical records. Banners represent the 49 founding families who signed the Treaty of 1861 in Kansas. Eight projectors show more family photos, thousands during every week. Glass, climate-controlled display cases hold much more: traditional men's and women's regalia, ledgers of allotments and census rolls, many of them very old and fragile.

A large, winding pictorial wall tells of the migration of the Citizen Potawatomi from before the arrival of Europeans to the tribe's coming to Oklahoma to their progress during their time here. A timeline gives visitors details from different perspectives.

"These markers tell you what was happening in the non-Indian world and what was happening in the world of Native Americans. It gives you a correlation," Boursaw said.