Meet the Aunties

Pauline Wahpepah (Absentee Shawnee)

Pauline White Wahpepah was born near Tecumseh, Oklahoma. Her first language was Absentee Shawnee, second language was Kickapoo and her third language was English. She would interpret for her grandmother in Shawnee and then her grandfather in Kickapoo. She attended boarding schools at Pawnee Indian School, Pawnee, Oklahoma and Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, Oklahoma. She also attended Haskell Institute (now Haskell Indian Nations University), Lawrence, Kansas. She began her higher education pursuits at St. Gregory’s University, Shawnee, Oklahoma and received her graduate education from the University of Central Oklahoma were she obtained a Master’s degree in Bilingual Education in 1995. She worked for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma on different language programs from 1986 to present. She helped to develop the Kickapoo Language Pictionary and taught Shawnee as scheduled throughout the years. She has composed poetry in both Shawnee and Kickapoo languages.