While much of our Community Powered work has emphasized storytelling and history, we found it just as important to get hands-on with our work. Getting together to create something, to make something with your hands, became an especially important aspect of Sapatis’ work in the Forest County Potawatomi Community.

Sapatis’ project sought to bring back the traditional game of lacrosse (stick and ball) to the Forest County Potawatomi. Though lacrosse has been played by several tribal communities around the state, the Forest County Potawatomi Community hasn’t played for at least 70 years. Sapatis worked closely with the FCP Community Center to bring back the game. He started by doing his research, asking elders and folks in the community about how to make sticks. He couldn’t find anyone with that specialized knowledge so he taught himself using traditional methods from his research. He broke many sticks trying to learn just how to make Great Lakes-style lacrosse sticks, but eventually learned enough to bring this skill back to the community.

On February 14-16, Sapatis held a three-day workshop on stick-making in the FCP Community Center woodshop. Several community members stopped by over the course of the workshop to either make their own stick, or learn about the sticks and Sapatis’ project. At the end of the workshop, a group of participants gathered to play a game of lacrosse.

Scenes from Sapatis’ stick-making workshop. Look at all those wood shavings!

This is just the beginning of Sapatis’ work to bring back lacrosse to the community. He hopes to host more games and workshops in the future!

Anthony, the CPPC in Racine, also wrapped the last of their podcasting workshops. This workshop brought in youth leaders from Jason Love’s Media Production Club at a local high school to help teach about audio editing. The teens led the workshop for a group of learners of all ages. The workshop had a fantastic turnout and everyone who attended seemed to learn a lot from the teen leaders!

Jason Love and youth leaders from the Media Production Club teach workshop participants about audio editing.