Students mark Native American Month with crafts

The Spartans got firsthand experience with Southern native culture this week after a visit from Coharie Indian Tribe member and State Advisory Council for Indian Education, Angelique Jacobs Young.

Young came to Union High School for a two-day teaching and fun session in UHS Art Teacher Ashley Knowles’ classroom as part of honoring natives for Native American Heritage month. While there she taught them about some of her tribes history. She also gave students a chance to be apart of that culture by teaching them authentic Native American beading and stitchwork.

“This has been a really great experience even for me also because I learned from her as well,” Knowles said. “Her first day here she was talking about how the things that we create are relative to the resources that we have.”

“She also bought a beautiful leather Native American dress and she talked about how now we have cotton but the colonists had to bring that to them,” she said. “So she just really talked about Native American history really, really quickly but the kids really enjoyed that.”

Students handcrafted themselves beaded rosettes, a staple in Native American fashion. Since rosettes are a long and important part of her culture, Young shared why she chose to use them.

“Rosettes have long been a part of Native American tradition in regalia making and jewelry making,” she said. “Whether it be on clothing, as a medallion, earrings or what have you. As beadwork goes, it’s probably one of the more simple tasks but still it’s tedious, it’s taken them over two days to make a rosette.”

“Now in the 21st century rosettes are not just being used in Native American tradition but also in just regular everyday fashion,” Young continued. “It’s neat to teach them that, even though their products may not look Native American, with the shapes or geometric patterns that stitching still comes from us.”

“Even though it’s been brought into modern day fashion whatever it is they create the basic history is still us.”

Young wasn’t the only one enjoying the sharing of her culture as Knowles would point out her students got just as much out of it.

“They are loving this beadwork,” she said. “It’s been really interesting that some students did not feel confident and I even had one student in class say, I’m never going to get this. Then, not even five minutes later, he was like, oh my gosh, there’s a pattern, I can do this.”

”So again, it’s really interesting to see students who don’t feel confident in something really quickly, spend a little time with it, then their minds change and they really enjoy it,” Knowles said. “Not only can they do it but they actually do it, it looks good and they had a good time in the process.”

Knowles also said that this moment wasn’t just special for her students but for herself as well.

“It was really special for me because I get to see the whole circle, you know, the full spectrum of it and my kids seem to enjoy it,” she said. “Plus Miss Young has only just picked up this practice in the past year or two years. Even though it’s a common practice in her culture, she’s just recently picked it up.”

“That’s really special to that not only is this culture still here, it’s still alive and even people who are not practicing certain aspects of the culture for some portions of their lives ,that doesn’t mean they’re not going to practice it later.”

Young’s visit to UHS for Native American Heritage month was made possible by donations from Simply Gifts. After having this opportunity she could only describe the experience as surreal.

”It’s very surreal because I’m glad that people are making space,” she said. “Whether it’s an artist to come in, dancers, somebody to speak or just literature. That people find it important to make the space to acknowledge and reflect on the fact that Native Americans are still alive and that we’re still here, it’s surreal.”

“It’s a community and it’s a community that’s rich in tradition and culture,” Young continued. “There’s some things that we’ve lost just because of location, you know, we’re on the East Coast and that’s where colonization began. So though lots of things have been lost, lots of things have been reserved. And again, I think it’s just really surreal that people are making space to come in and have a part in this instructional time.”

As for what she hopes this moment will mean for the students lives she got to be apart of Young looked to their futures.

“As far as the children, they could never remember my name, which is fine, they’re not supposed to,” she said with a laugh. “But, they’ll always remember that time they did some beadwork during Native American Heritage Month. This was an experience that they won’t forget and as Native American History Month continues, year after year after year, these will have children and their children will ask them questions and I’m hoping by that time they’ll have some answers.”