Cynthia Lukas wins Library writing contest with “Fire Keeper’s Circle”

Cynthia Lukas won the Open Category for the theme Golazo! with the work "Fire Keepers Circle"

 

Lukas says, "I was born in Arkansas and moved to Kansas to help to take care of my elderly mother, Margaret. She used to say that "I want to be a writer" was one of the earliest statements I made as a young girl. I have fulfilled my dream of being a writer, spanning several genres and many decades. Writing is still the same big adventure of discovery it was when I was little. It is one of my primary ways of connecting with others and the Universe and reflecting upon the Sacred."

 

 

Fire Keepers Circle
On July 19, 2025 I was witness to a beautiful ritual affirmation of the power of art to offer and maintain healing. I saw a groundbreaking celebration of a sculpture in Olathe Kansas inspired by and dedicated to the Potawatomi people as Keepers of the Fire, “Fire Keepers Circle.” According to the artist Aaron Squadroni, “it was designed as an active sculpture that provides a space to gather and is wrapped by a multi-layered blanket.” As a stop on the historic Trail of Death, the artist envisioned the sculpture as “a place of warmth and renewal where current members can gather and reflect or visitors to the park can learn about Potawatomi culture and history.”

 

Squadroni co-created the sculpture with Leah Yellowbird, who had recently transitioned. The two received much input and guidance from many of the Potawatomi people. He quoted Leah Yellowbird as saying, “The voices of our ancestors come back to us when we need them” and “they are part of the great chain of Being that connects everyone—past, present, future.”

 

That day about half of the 200 + in that chain gathered were current members of the Potawatomi people, some travelling from Oklahoma and other states. The other half were interested visitors (like me) to learn more and show our respect to the people, in humble acknowledgement of the traumatic Trail of Death, a 660-mile Trail taken by the Potawatomi ancestors from Indiana to Kansas. The artist explained that the middle layer of the blanket on the sculpture followed the contour of that Trail and the 859 holes cut into the metal honored the 859 ancestors who made that trek.

 

The artist said that his design was inspired by the fire pit in the sweat lodge, considered the center of the Universe, used to purify and renew the spirit. “An individual is a circle of consciousness in the midst of many more circles that are not separate but mutually dependent on each other.”

That statement reminded me of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision for humanity: an infinite number of individual circles, separate but equal and connected in harmony, holding the same center (Spirit). His nonviolent vision, of course, was based upon indigenous wisdom. For, as he put it, “Nonviolence (Ahimsa) is as old as the hills.” By that he meant that it was as old as the people, as old as the land, as old as the sky. 

 

The atmosphere at this ground-breaking was electric with happy anticipation, and the ensuing program was calming and uplifting. The two policemen in attendance seemed superfluous, an unneeded protection. They, as many of us, were smudged as friends and family. Sage was in the air. Children ran and played through the mostly-standing crowd with abandon, and there was a four-legged in attendance (dog) as well as a turkey vulture
gliding above us in the sky, another Eye. I was told that a turkey vulture is one of the few birds who doesn’t need to flap its wings to fly and could soar for six hours or more. It stayed with us throughout the event.

 

Although vultures are associated with death by some, my understanding of them is the way the Potawatomi would have seen them: as necessary mediators between the dead and the living, Nature having given them their important task of recycling what is spent to live again in different form.

Many of us felt there were many more than only 200 souls in attendance, feeling the light airiness of the presence of the Potawatomi ancestors. We also felt that those whose presence we sensed had arranged for it to be cloudy and pleasant for us to be outside at noon in Kansas in July, instead of in the blazing heat the Weather Service had predicted.

Each speaker in the program was memorable in her or his way. The first one, Angela, spoke in both Potawatomie and English, saying first “Thank you, Creator.” She also prayed that the Creator would “Help us (the Potawatomie people) to regain our lives.” She prayed that
all peoples would “Be kind.” 

 

The composer who played a song she had created for that day said that her intention was “that those who walked will be honored.”

A representative from the Johnson County Arts Commission, an organization only a few years old, thanked the Potawatomie people for “your willingness to share your experience.” She explained that each of the 32 feathers etched into the sculpture had been designed by Potawatomie families and “each has a story to tell.”

A city representative proclaimed, “Public art has the power to change hearts.” He said that a year ago he and many had walked as a re-creation of the Trail. Now, he continued, this sculpture was a solid, visible way to recognize that history and celebrate diversity and
inclusion, which were currently “threatened” in many places. 

That final statement of his impelled me to speak to him after the program, still in the emotional afterglow of the event. I thanked him for his comments and shared a time long ago when I had been a witness to a breach of inclusiveness in another city and state. I commended him for his work. He said that those who champion diversity, like him, “like us,” can serve as “a firewall” on the local level.

I found his term “firewall” to be the perfect ending or coda to this experience in honoring the Keepers of the Fire.

 

This experience gave me hope that oneness can indeed one day prevail, if we are attentive to the lessons that history and Nature teach us. Even today, my heart remains light and warm as I remember that experience. It is as if the Fire Keepers themselves had re-lit my commitment as both witness and participant in keeping tolerance, acceptance and compassion alive. Join me in their Circle.