John Barrett Jr. is a
Citizen Potawatomi Nation politician who has served as the Citizen Potawatomi Nation chairman since 1985. He previously served as the vice-chairman between 1975 and 1977.
Early life and education
John Barrett Jr. was born in 1944 to John Adams Barrett Sr. (November 16, 1923 – June 28, 2004) and Dorie Seikel in
Shawnee, Oklahoma. His father served in
World War II and his mother was
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
from the Peltier and Boursaw families. He attended tribal meetings as a child with his family and worked on
oil rigs
{{about, , the mnemonic OIL RIG, Redox
An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling.
Kinds of oil rig include:
* Drilling rig, an apparatus for on-land oil drilling
* Drillship, a floating apparatus for offshore oil drilling
* ...
owned by his family's Barrett Drilling Company. He graduated from
Shawnee High School in 1962 and spent three years at
Princeton University before transferring to the
University of Oklahoma. He transferred again, this time to
Oklahoma City University where he graduated with a
bachelor's degree in business. After graduating, he worked as a traveling salesman for the United States Plywood Corporation. He claims to have been in
Memphis, Tennessee during the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7 ...
and that "our warehouse was right within sight of where he got shot."
Political career
In 1975, Barrett was elected as the vice-chairman of the
Citizen Potawatomi Nation and served two terms.
In 1984, he helped write a new Citizen Potawatomi Nation constitution that was approved in 1985. That same year he was elected the Chairman of the
Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
He again led constitutional reform efforts in the nation in 2007.
He was inducted into the
Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2023.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, John Jr.
1944 births
Citizen Potawatomi Nation politicians
Oklahoma City University alumni
Princeton University alumni
University of Oklahoma alumni
Living people