Local election 2024. CHICAGO — Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Tribal Council Vice Chairman Zach Pahmahmie and Secretary Lorrie Melchior took the stage at the opening session of the Democratic National Convention last Monday night. Pahmahmie thanked and welcomed those gathered that evening to hear President Joe Biden speak to them later that evening.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN) was given the main stage because it is the only federally recognized tribe in the state of Illinois.
The Mayetta, Kansas-based tribe received this distinction earlier this year when the U.S. Department of the Interior placed parts of the historic Shab-eh-nay Reservation in trust for the PBPN.
The Shab-eh-nay reservation is located in a suburb of Chicago, west of Aurora.
Pahmahmie welcomed the DNC delegates with these words:
“Here we are together on the land of our ancestors, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and our sister Potawatomi peoples. We also honor the spirit of the other tribal peoples who have traveled through this beautiful area.
Welcome to the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Our ancestors have lived in the Great Lakes region since time immemorial. However, in 1849, our tribe was forcibly removed from our homeland by an illegal action by the U.S. government. Since then, we have been working to reclaim it. Finally, this year, the Department of the Interior placed some of our ancestral lands west of Chicago into a trust.
“Thanks to the determination of our tribal community and the Biden-Harris administration, we have reclaimed a piece of our homeland. We have been the only federally recognized tribal nation in Illinois for 175 years.”
Pahmahmie and Melchior were accompanied in Chicago by other tribal council members: William Evans, Raphael Wahwassuck and Ronald “Tony” Wahweotten, Jr.
Representative Sharice Davids and former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
On Tuesday morning, Mayetta, Kansas-based PBPN hosted a breakfast for Kansas DNC delegates at the Chicago Hilton. Breakfast attendees heard from Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS), a tribal member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA).
Center for Native Futures co-founder Monica Rickert-Bolter (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) welcomes PBPN tribal council members
Later Tuesday, tribal council members took a break from the DNC to visit the Center for Native Futures in the Chicago Loop at 56 West Adams. Co-founder Monica Rickert-Bolter is a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
PBPN Vice Chair Zach Pahmahmie, member Raphael Wahwassuck, Secretary Lorrie Melchoir, member Ronald “Tony” Wahweotten, Jr. and member William Evans sit on the “powwow chairs” at the Center of Native Futures.
Rickert-Bolter and co-founder Debra Pappan (Jemez Pueblo) welcomed the PBPN Tribal Council along with James Crawford, Chairman of the Potawatomi of Forest County, and provided an overview of the Contemporary Native American Art Gallery, which will open in September 2023.
About the author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert is the recipient of the 2021 Native Media Award for Best Column in the Print/Online category from the Native American Journalists Association. He is on the Advisory Board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at [email protected].”
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