By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – For the second school year in a row, fifth grade students at Cherokee Elementary School have written and published a book. This school year, students in Mrs. Shae Deck’s class produced “Important Cherokee Animals and Plants” dedicated to the “past, present, and future Cherokee people”.
“I really wanted to teach my students about their Cherokee culture and what’s important about it,” Mrs. Deck said. “And, one of the things that really sticks in my mind for Cherokee culture is plants and animals because they all intertwine…they were gatherers, they were hunters. And they had great respect for those two things. So, I really wanted to bring that to the classroom. But, I also wanted my kids to look at something and be proud of it.”
This school year, students in Mrs. Shae Deck’s class produced “Important Cherokee Animals and Plants” dedicated to the “past, present, and future Cherokee people”. Several of the students who worked on the book are shown in their classroom on Wednesday, May 21 including, left to right, Maria Garcia-Armachain, Mitchell Littlejohn, Camren Stevens, Rose Arch, and Mrs. Shae Deck. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
Working on the book was a way for the students to share with the world a little bit about themselves. Mrs. Deck noted, “I wanted to give them a way to be able to express themselves creatively but do it in a way that was informational for everybody else. Because, when you’re talking about Cherokee and you’re sharing Cherokee culture, there’s so many misconceptions…I wanted it to come from students from Cherokee that live this life, that are in this culture, that go to this school, that live in this beautiful country that we live in, and I want them to be able to say, ‘no, this is my culture and this is what it means to me.’ That is amazing in and of itself, but the best part about this entire thing is when they opened up and saw their book and they said, ‘I did that’. You could see the pride and you could see just the confidence brimming.”
Each student wrote and illustrated a story on a subject of interest to them.
Camren Stevens, a student who wrote about river cane, commented, “I think it’s nice that we can share our culture and our hobbies and what we like doing.”
Mrs. Deck said the work was worth the end product. “My main job as an educator is to show them that they have the confidence to literally succeed in any way possible and this book has helped every single one of my students to do that. It’s amazing…It’s a long process, but it’s worth every minute the second they open up their book and are like, ‘I made that’.”
Maria Garcia-Armachain, a student, wrote about ramps and what it means to her family. “My dad goes up to the woods and gets them and my mom sells them. And, it makes me more curious. I want to help my mom around.”
She said her father taught her the proper way to harvest ramps. “You leave the root in the ground, you cut the top part off. It was the best day of my life.”
Mrs. Deck thanked Rich Bottchenbaugh for helping the class with the Cherokee syllabary and phonetics used in the book as well as Nicole Efrid and Tagan Crowe for their help with knowledge of the various plants and animals. Mrs. Deck also thanked the Cherokee School Board for purchasing every student a copy of the book.
Following are the various student authors and their stories which are included in “Important Cherokee Animals and Plants”:
- Michell Littlejohn – Tsu-na-ga, brook trout
- Camren Stevens – I-hya, river cane
- Taiquan Driver – Ah-wi, deer
- Jacelyn Velazquez-Lossiah – She-lu, corn
- Triniti Caley – Dag(i)-shi, turtle
- Beau Edwards – Wa-ne-hi, hickory tree
- Holden McCormick – Tsa-me-ha, bats
- Arralyn Brady – So-tsv-na, sochan
- Dayna Locust – Yo-na, bears
- Maria Garcia-Armachain – Wa-sdi, ramps
- Jerald Davis – Ko-la-nv, the raven
- Lake-Van Garcia – Gi-ga-ge U-na-sde-tsi, blood root
- Niah Taylor – Du-we-ga, salamander
- Evelyn Welch – Nv-do-que-ya, sourwood tree
- Rose Arch – Ka-na-ne-sgi, spider
- Zaiden Bradley – She-di, walnut tree
- Levi Winstead – Ta-wo-di, red tail hawk
- Tucker Blankenship – Da-lo-ni-ge U-na-sde-tsi, yellow root
You can order a copy of “Important Cherokee Animals and Plants” by visiting: studentreasures.com/ordercopies and using PIN 8372193. You can also order a copy of last year’s book, “Our Cherokee Culture”, by using PIN 8277074.
In speaking on the total effort of the students, Mrs. Deck noted, “It was just the determination of my kids to want to make this good and staying on top of it.”
