About

Right to left: Amanda Funk (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) and Alexi Weiskircher of the Widoktadwen Center for Native Knowledge stand in front of the Berks County Community Foundation, where their office is located. *Photo credit: L Pursley (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), Grade 9, Wilson High School)*

Amanda Funk
Co-Founder
Executive Director

Amanda is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, raised and educated in Berks County. She earned both her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in English from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and her Associate’s degree in Communications from Reading Area Community College.

In 2014, while a graduate student, Amanda won the Scholars for the Dream Travel Award through the Conference on College Composition and Communication for her scholarship relating to the visibility and authenticity of Native American identity.

She has taught at Reading Area Community College and Alvernia University and tutored writing at both, with a special focus in adult education–a personal passion.

Amanda also serves on the Cabinet of Emerging Leaders United through the United Way of Berks County, and on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Berks Regional Chapter.

Alexi Weiskircher
Co-Founder
Visual Director & Research Coordinator

Alexi earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. During her student internship at the Reading Public Museum, Alexi assisted with conceptualizing and developing an exhibit featuring the local Lenni Lenape.

Growing up, she always felt drawn to learning about other cultures, religions, societies, and ideas about life. When she discovered anthropology in college, she began to understand the importance of learning about humans and our many ways of living without judgment. It’s something she truly believes should be taught at a much younger age in school.

As a part of the Widoktadwen Center for Native Knowledge (WCNK), she hopes to help expand people’s knowledge, adults and children alike, of the contributions and struggles of Indigenous Peoples, correcting the perpetuation of falsehoods, and allowing true information to be easily accessible for anyone to use. She hopes that by spreading awareness, we can help correct the injustices that still continue to this day.

Her biggest dream for the WCNK is to have our own space for expanding education through live Native speakers and demonstrations, as well as stationary historical exhibits and presentations.

“Only through understanding, accepting, and learning where we’ve all come from, will we be able to join together and make this world a better place,” she says.

Mission

Our mission is to promote the visibility of Native Americans in Berks County and beyond through community education, leadership, and activism.

In order to place Indians in the present day, we must change the false narratives surrounding the colonization of North America in order to accurately represent American Indians in formative education. Once our children have been taught that there is nothing to say about Indians after 1900, learned the stereotype of the Plains Indian atop a horse and wearing a war bonnet, and learned that American Indians have faded away into history, it’s hard for them to see Natives in any other light.

Vision

We envision a community within Greater Berks that embodies Native values and sees and celebrates the real contributions of Native people throughout history and in the present day.

Our Name

Widoktadwen in Bodewadmimwen, the Potawatomi language, means community. The root of this word roughly translates to together, with each other, or helping each other. Our name literally translates to the Community Center for Native Knowledge.

Relationships are the living and beating heart of a healthy community, and as Native people we seek to live in right relationship with each other, Mother Earth, and our Creator. It was important to us to include that ethos of a healthy community grounded in our relationships in our name and our mission.

We strongly believe that only a cultural shift in mindset, values, and priorities will create the lasting positive change we seek in our society. We are aware of the deeper ills that afflict our society, like consumerism, greed, individualism, prejudice, and fear. We’ve learned to value money and commodities over health and life–and, friends, we are due for a cultural shift. We still live in a world that oppresses countercultural narratives and targets people of color, and our society is largely ignorant of the ways in which these behaviors stem from corrupt systems designed to serve white supremacy and the idea of a single American culture. But together, as a community, we can begin to break down the oppressive systems that no longer (or never did) serve us and build something far greater.

Community is the medicine. We are the medicine.

Our Logo

Fire in the Potawatomi tradition represents the spirit of the people. The fire also refers to the Seven Fires prophecies of the Nishnabe. Fire keeps us warm, cooks our food, and lights our world. Fire symbolizes our spirituality, our connectedness to the Creator, and the essence of our spiritual selves. Fire is where we gather.

There’s a legend among some Eastern Woodland people about the Rainbow Crow, who carries the Creator’s gift of fire from the sun to nourish the people. We keep the fire of the Creator and the fire of our people.

Potawatomi is the anglicized version of Bodewadmi, which translates to “people of the place of the fire.” The Potawatomi were a part of the Three Fires Council, which also included the Ojibwe and Odawa. The Ojibwe were the keepers of the trade, the Odawa were the keepers of the medicine, and the Potawatomi were the keepers of the fire.

We must never let that fire be extinguished.

Our philosophy

Widoktadwen Center for Native Knowledge is formed exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the corresponding provisions of any future United States Internal Revenue Law, provided that, without limited the generality of the foregoing, Widoktadwen Center for Native Knowledge’s specific purposes shall include: promoting the visibility of Native Americans by partnering with educational institutions, using digital communication, and participating in community events to educate and make accurate and authentic information available to everyone, ultimately improving social outcomes for Native Americans and their communities.