School project features Choctaw journals

Student relives Trail of Tears as her Choctaw great-great-grandmother

By Kayla BellSkylar Jones' project, "Chi Pisa Lachke: A Choctaw Goodbye," won first place among seventh-graders at the Texas Performance Standards Project District Showcase on Tuesday night. The showcase takes the place of the district's annual science fair, and charges gifted and talented, pre-AP and AP students with creating projects that touch on business, math, nutrition, weather and more.

Skylar chose a project about the rites of passage of a Native American or immigrant group. Her family had always talked about her Choctaw heritage, and she wanted to learn more.And:As part of her project, Skylar imagined the journal entries of her great-great-grandmother in the past and created the persona of a Choctaw 100 years in the future. The future decedent, Zed Doil, would be an air-head kind of girl who never knew about her Choctaw heritage. But when she finds out, she wants to raise awareness of the plight of her people.

"That's also what I'm trying to do," Skylar said.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Teaching Native History Through Art and Ethnic Studies "Is About Rehumanization"

Below:  "Skylar Jones, 12, right, and her mother, Beth, pack up her project in the gym of Liberty Academy so they can move to the Victoria Fine Arts Center for her presentation Tuesday during the district showcase of the Texas Performance Standards Project. Skylar's mother helped her complete her project, which traced her Choctaw heritage and examined both the past, present and a possible future of her descendants." (Angeli Wright)