The administration building at Rodgers Lake on Sink Road was finished in March, but finally dedicated Wednesday morning, Oct. 6. The tribe employs 130 in the Dowagiac area. (The Daily News/John Eby)

By JOHN EBY

Dowagiac Daily News

Pokagon Band of Potawatomi celebrated the tribe’s growth and development Wednesday morning by dedicating two projects.

At 9 a.m. there was a dedication and ceremonial smudging — a form of prayer with smoke — of the new administration building for education, housing, social services, finance, enrollment and elections at Rodgers Lake, 58620 Sink Road, which opened in March.

“We have a lot going on, to put it mildly,” Chairman Matt Wesaw said of the belated dedication.

At 10:30 a.m. the tribe blessed the site of the new community center at Pokégnek Édawat, which now has almost 30 homes.

The community center, currently under construction, will be an 8,500 square-foot building providing tribal citizens with a central place to gather for meetings, social events and special occasions.

“I’m happy to see what it has become after all these years of going without bread and milk and throwing in the pot. We’re very thankful for what we have today,” Elders Council member Audrey Huston commented.

Tom Topash, Tribal Council member at large, said, “I go back to the days when we were working so hard to gain federal recognition,” which President Bill Clinton granted in an Oval Office ceremony in 1994.

“We had bake sales to get to Washington,” Topash recalled. “This is the real serious cultural stuff that it’s possible to lose. In this particular rotunda, we’ve had several sunrise ceremonies. This is built this way for the circle and the medicine wheel. This is especially the time to be elevated to a position where all of our community can celebrate our culture.”

In the human resources office, visitors were told that 30 employees were hired last year, with another 30 to 40 expected to join the staff during 2010 despite the fragile economy recovering from a deep recession.

Some 150 people now make up the workforce based at the administration center in the forest southwest of Dowagiac — 130 in this area and 28 assigned to gaming for Four Winds Casino Resort in Berrien County’s New Buffalo.

Spiritual leader Clarence White, an Elders Council member, conducted the ceremony, sweeping clockwise around the crowd with his smudge pot, fanning smoke with a feather.

Those attending the ceremonies included state Rep. Sharon Tyler, R-Niles; Cass County Commissioner Robert Wagel, R-Wayne Township; Dowagiac First Ward Councilman Junior Oliver, who is a registered member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw; Dowagiac Board of Education President Larry Seurynck;  Dowagiac Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Daniel; and City Manager Kevin Anderson.

Val Janowski led visiting dignitaries on a tour of the new facility, which contains a Native American library which replaced an old rented trailer.

“It’s available for tribal citizens and their families to come in anytime,” Janowski said. “I’m the lead for a program initiated last year on financial literacy, so we’re going to integrate financial education into all areas of tribal programs.”

Penny Brant, education coordinator, said, “The Department of Education consists of Head Start, we’re working toward developing more of a program for 0-4, we have K-12, including enrichment programs and tutoring for students in need, advocating for students and parents when there are bumps. We also have higher education, which helps with scholarship assistance for college and adult education, which includes WIA, the Workforce Investment Act.”

“We’re looking at education from birth” for lifelong learning, Brant said.

“This new library, with four actual walls. The old library was a walk-through as you went to storage. It’s pretty exciting. We have a really good selection of accurate Native American history, so we’re trying to get the word out to educators if they need an accurate account, please come out and use our facility. We have a lot of great reads that will hit kids’ imaginations and also be a way to bring traditions into daily life.”

Oliver, whose tribe was recognized in 1935, said, “Until 1980, 72 percent of our people only spoke Native dialects. Today, we’re graduating 16 people per year on average who can talk three languages,” including English and Spanish.

The Pokagon Band hosted a Potawatomi language “immersion” in September, Brant said.

Last week, language and culture left the education department umbrella to become a department unto themselves.

There are three conference rooms and a spacious break room, so no more need to eat lunch at desks.

The position of building inspector, vacant more than four months, has been filled.

Paige Risser, communications director, welcomed guests, who enjoyed the warm sunny day and blue skies which ripened from a 37-degree morning.