Getting Back To My Roots

Native American Brett A. Brinton is a tribal and family member with the federally registered Potawatomi tribe in the U.S., the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.  Brett’s mother Joan Bourassa (Brinton) Rettinger was the daughter of Mark Bourassa, a 100% Potawatomi and Brett’s grandfather.  Mark Bourassa’s grandparents were one of the original founding families of the tribe.

Recently there was an annual Family Reunion Festival of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a celebration of native culture for the Potawatomi. Brett Alan Brinton and his wife Joy brought their 5 year old son Matthew, also a tribal member.  Brett and his family joined with his mother and brother, Bill Brinton, Jr. and his son Mark, all tribal members at the Festival in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The Festival involved several events and took place the final weekend of June 2011.

This year the tribe celebrated Brett Brinton’s native family – the Bourassa family along with 7 other founding families at the Reunion. Brett’s family meets up with his mother’s cousin Norman Kiker in Shawnee for lunch.

The festivities included traditional ceremonies such as Grand Entry, Family Honors, and General Council. There were also many games, events, and other activities for families to enjoy. The first night of the festival, Brett Brinton and his brother Bill represented their district in the “Hand Games” event.  District 8 led by Representative Dave Carney printed great t-shirts for the team. Brett and his team members wore shirts that were printed with “Fast Hands” or ‘Gshinenjen’ in Potawatomi language.  Apparently the team name was a good omen as the team advanced to the finals after the first round.

Brett Brinton and his wife Joy celebrated their 12^th Wedding Anniversary during the festival. Brett took Joy to the FireLake Grand Casino where they enjoyed checking out the new casino and the live music.

Brett Brinton and his family recently familiarized himself with the traditions and history of his tribe at lunch with extended family living in Potawatomi County, Oklahoma.  The ancient Potawatomi people were once part of an immense group that had traveled down the eastern shores of North America along the Atlantic Ocean.

Brett learned that the Potawatomi people firmly believe that they were called the “people of the place of the fire” because they retained the original council fire after the immense group split into three tribes. Today, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation refers to themselves as the Nishnabec or the “True People.” 

During the mid 1650’s, French traders visited the tribe and found them growing corn, gathering wild rice, and harvesting an abundant supply of fish or Pike from the western waters of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.  Ironically, Brett found that his wife Joy was a Potawatomi princess in her school play when residing as a youth in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Kenosha was originally named Gnozhe in Potawatomi – “place of the pike”. 

At the height of the Fur Trading Era that spanned an entire century, the Potawatomi controlled a tribal estate that encompassed Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and a small portion of Ohio over 5 million acres. This was accomplished through long standing leadership and savvy business skills. Brett Brinton, now CEO of Zonar Systems can attest to the native instinct and hereditary personal traits that depict these same successful business skills known and practiced by his native ancestors.

It should be noted that the Potawatomi were simply not satisfied with trapping furs. Instead, they entered into a rivalry with the Ottawa for a share in the role as middleman for trade into the Green Bay area. Using their entrepreneurial skills, they began to hire other local tribesman to collect and trap the furs that they once procured. In turn, they would sell or trade the furs to the French, thus expanding their tribal control and estate over a vast area. The Potawatomi were genuine, trustworthy and bright business people whose traits are still found among the native sons like Brett Brinton and his brother Bill.

Brett was able to tell his son Matthew that it was well known that the Potawatomi adapted to their wilderness environment by mainly traveling on Lake Michigan and its tributaries rather than traveling over the land on horseback. Perhaps that is where Brett Brinton gets his love for boating and water sports and why his family resides today on the Puget Sound where a boat is handy in their backyard for crabbing at anytime in the summer months.


Learn more about the Potawatomi Nation and keep up with their upcoming events! http://www.potawatomi.org/

Where it all began...

Brett A. Brinton, attended University of California – Irvine from 1983 though 1989.  His major field of study was Biochemistry. However, prior to completing his undergraduate course in pre-medicine, Brett was enticed to join his father as co-founder and partner in a new business, Wasser High Tech Coatings. 

As a “start-up” company, Brett Brinton along with his father, William Brinton Sr. and wife Debra, and his brother Bill quickly grew Wasser to become a major force in the international protective coatings market.  Prior to its sale to Wattyl, LTD in 1999, Wasser was the largest supplier of bridge coatings in the world. Wasser’s major market penetration was in petrochemical arenas, theme parks, sports stadiums, power generation, and commercial marine industries.  When the family sold the company Brett held the title of Vice President. 

Prior to the sale of Wasser, Brett served the company in multiple capacities beginning with sales and production and continuing on with creatively engineering new products and coatings apart from the established generic coating Wasser was known for, Moisture Cure Urethanes.  Brett was responsible for all the formulas.  Wasser’s products were considered industry standard and always tested superior to the competition.

The research and development aspects of new products which Brett Brinton was involved with were often inspired from customers requesting greater specifications for specific architectural designs, or from unusual owner operated facilities, as well as from bridge and hydroelectrical engineers. Brett and his family were driven to provide products that had value as well as lifelong durability, made Wasser a leader in its field. 

During Brett’s tenure at Wasser, the company received industry awards including “hot Product of the Year” by Modern Steel Construction.  Brett was diligent in every task before him, increasing Wasser’s product line and supervising the quality and production of the coatings throughout his tenure at the Seattle based company.  He was responsible for single-handedly lowering raw material costs for eleven consecutive years at Wasser, including formula revisions that saved the company millions of dollars.   

After the sale of the company, he continued working for Wattyl LTD as Technical Director of their Wasser Division. Brett Brinton was responsible for training laboratory, production and sales personnel in multiple locations across the United States and Australia. In addition to these tasks, Brett made joint sales calls and regularly attended industry conventions.

In 2000, Brett Brinton left Wattyl and began working in furtherance of the Wasser European License Agreement throughout  2001. He provided technical training and operational support for manufacturing and distribution of a new product line in Europe and the Middle East.  Brett’s work with Eurochemie B.V. in the Netherlands included helping with project management, joint sales calls throughout Europe, as well as raw material sourcing and implementation of QC and QA programs to ISO 9000 Standards.  Brett successfully launched the new product line with Eurochemie B.V. with over 1 MM in new sales in the first six months. The second year successfully brought in a 50% increase over the previous year’s sales. 

Brett believes his experience in every phase of this family business, gained him the uncanny ability and understanding to lead a company from scratch into a competitive market  place able to stand alone and above other more established entities AND without outside financial capital from the beginning.  It was this experience that brought him into the position he carries now at Zonar Systems, Inc.

Wasser continues on today and can be found at Wasser - Advanced Coatings Technology.

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