The Warriors’ WordServing Native Americans Concerned With The Education of Native American Children Aug./Sept. 2016 Issue

INSIDE ...

PAGE 1. CHOCTAW HERITAGE DAYPAGE 2. FOOD ARTPAGE 3. 1ST FEMALE PLAYER, BIG BOAT CHALLENGEPAGE 4. THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTSPAGE 5. SEE YOU AT THE POLEPAGE 6. CAUGHT BEING GOODPAGE 7. BATMOBILE, LIBRARY NEWS, LEARN AND SERVE

See You At The Pole

Jones Academy students, teachers, and other staff members participated in the “See You At The Pole” corporate prayer meeting on September 28th, 2016.

On September 5th, 2016, the elementary boys excitedly sat down in the activity room at the dorm. It was as if they could almost hear the historic Choctaw drum beating as Mrs. Larsen read from the pages of Tim Tingle’s, “Walking The Choctaw Road”. The boys were curious about the story’s setting, the Trail of Tears. Ms. Larsen began reading the book to the elementary boys in the dorm as a part of celebrating Choctaw Na-tion Heritage day at Jones Academy. Now, once a month in honor of Choctaw Heritage Day, a day designated by the Choctaw Nation, a member of the dorm staff will continue to read chapters of the book until they have completed the story of “Walking down the Choctaw Road”. What an awesome way of learning about the heri-tage of the Choctaw Nation and other tribal history!

By: Rose Foote

Choctaw Heritage Day Celebrated At The Little Boys Dorm!

Dorm staff member Mrs. Larsen, reads to the elementary boys.

Choctaw Native, Samantha Curliss-Humphreys, recently visited with the Jones Academy Elementary girls for their August Heritage Day. Wearing her traditional dress, she discussed her journey as a princess. Samantha began attending pow-wows with her late grandmother Dorothy Spears at a young age. Her grandmother taught her the importance of her culture and heritage. Samantha was honored in being a Pittsburg County Inter-Tribal Pow-Wow Junior Princess, then Pittsburg County Inter-Tribal Pow-Wow Senior Princess. Having these experiences gave her the motivation to go on to earn the honor of being Junior Miss Choctaw Nation in 1996. Sa-mantha discussed with the children the process of becoming Junior Miss Choctaw Nation and what she did after she was princess. Samantha stated, “Being Junior Miss was a great honor, I learned so much and met many wonderful people.” Samantha discussed her dress, explaining what the patterns on the dress represented as well as other patterns they may see such as the circle and cross, which represents the sun and stars. She also showed the children her crowns and discussed her headwear and jewelry. The children listened intently when Samantha told them the story of “Opossum and Raccoon” and how the opossum’s tail came to have no hair. Samantha is the daughter of the late Charles and Patricia Curliss, the granddaughter of the late Bert and Dorothy Spears and the late Jim and Margaret “Tiny” Curliss and she has 3 older brothers all from Hartshorne, Oklahoma. Samantha is married to Lee Alan Humphreys of Yanush, Okla-homa, also a member of the Choctaw Nation. She currently works with the KEDDO Area Agency on Aging helping Senior Citizens find services to help meet their needs. Samantha said, “It was a privilege and honor to speak to the children of Jones Academy. They were so attentive and respectful. Thank you, Jones Academy, for giving me this opportunity.” Samantha would also like to thank her niece Charli Curliss for assisting her during her visit to Jones Academy.

Honoring Choctaw Heritage Day

Cynthia Chronister is a mild mannered food service worker at Jones Academy but she has a secret talent no-body knows about. She makes art out of food, as a hobby. She started doing this in the early 1990’s. Mrs. Chronister learned about food art from the internet. Now, she creates imaginative characters from materials such as bell pep-pers and vegetables, fruit, and other colorful foods for the students and faculty at Jones Academy to enjoy. She said “I have always liked to play with my food”.

Cynthia Chronister

Robotman

Jungle Hair

Paradise Plants

Apple Ears the Elephant

Pepper LaPierreLeggs the Spider

Cafeteria Food ArtBy Krystena Prue

Destanie Logston is a sixth grader at Jones Academy and she happens to be the only elemen-tary girl from Jones Academy ever to play football for the Little Miners. She is a starter for the Little Miners sixth grade football team. The positions she plays are Right Guard and Tight End. Destanie says the best thing about football is tackling because it’s fun! She loves playing football and enjoys being part of the Hartshorne Little Miners team. Her coach is Joe David King of Hartshorne.

By Mariella Chatkehoodle

Destanie Logston

First Female FootballPlayer At JA Elementary

As part of a lesson introducing measurements in Mr. Sirmans’ fifth grade science class, Isabel Lujano had to make a boat out of clay. The boat needed to be designed to hold a substantial amount of weight. During the testing process, the students boats were placed in a fish tank that held water. Slowly, tiny blue weights weighing one gram were added to the boats. Isabel’s boat held more weight than any of the boats made by other students in the class. Her boat weighed 40 grams and held 69 grams of weight. It sunk as Isabel placed the 70th gram of weight into the boat. Tying for second place were Kaylee Little Axe and Dakota Whiteskunk, who built boats that each held 54 grams of weight.

Mr. Sirmans said of his student Isabel Lujano, “Isabel is very attentive. She listens well and participates well in class.”

Isabel adds weights to her boat to see how much it will hold.

THE BIG BOAT CHALLENGE

By Desma Valdez

Thursday Night Lights

Scott Horstman presents the Miners Football team with a banner.

4 Members of the Miners Football team from Jones Academy line up for the community prayer on the football field.Daniel Marquez, Kyle Miller, Andres Lujano, and Cruz Ortiz

On the evening of August 25th, a Thursday Night Lights event kicked off the 2016-2017 Hartshorne Miners Football Season. In the event coordinated by Scott Horstman, pastor at First Assembly of God church in Hartshorne, the Miners high school football team was joined by the Miners Marching Band, the cheerleaders, the Little Miners football team, the junior high football team, school faculty and the community to get prepared for the sea-son. Tyson Simon, the FCA sports Chaplain from the University of Arkansas spoke to the crowd about being all in. He stressed the importance of the community and fans and players backing the football team on the field and being all in for the Miners. Toward the end of the event everyone was asked to go down on the field and join hands a in show of support for the safety of the team, the students and the people of the community. It was a great way to begin the football season for the Miners and for fans to show their support for these fine young people that wear the Miners uniform.

Mr. Dugan, sixth grade teacher, shows his support of the Min-ers by joining hands, in prayer, with some of the Little Miner Football Players from Jones Academy. Standing with Mr. Du-gan are: Rayshaun Lewis, Destanie Logston, Nicholas Sandfur, Chitto Buttler, and Morgan Jefferson

See You at the Pole ~We Cry Out

Students standing in front of Mr. Sirmans bow their heads and quietly wait for Mr. Sanchez to begin the corporate prayer.

Many people were in attendance at ‘See You At the Pole”

On the warm Wednesday morning of September 28th, Jones Academy joined Choctaw Nation in partici-pating in “See You at the Pole”. It was an opportunity for students, teaching staff, and other employees at Jones Academy to participate in a voluntary prayer time set aside to bring native tribes together in unity. Participants came together at the flag pole in front of the elementary school. Guidance counselor and minister, David Sanchez, led the group in prayer.

By Kyra Noah

Caught Being GoodIn September

It’s always nice to see students going above and beyond what is expected of them in their daily living at Jones Academy. Jones Acad-emy has some very well mannered students and we are very proud to have them as a part of the student body. Good deeds do not go unseen at Jones Academy. When students “get caught” doing something good they are recognized with a “Caught Being Good” award and selected students are presented with a gift card. Congratulations to our re-cipients for the month of September.

Dameion Wakolee

Jaiden Phillips

Daniel Howell

Learn and Serve Going Above and Beyond

Even with the temperatures still reaching the high 90’s toward the end of the summer, Jones Academy’s Learn and Serve members still exhibit their great integrity and work ethic. On August 30th, the boys went out and cleaned up the trash that was lying around on campus. What a great group of young men. We appreciate what they do. Great Job Boys!

Nicholas Sandfur, Octavius Posadas-Gabino, and Dameion Wakolee deliver their collected trash to the dumpster.

On occasion a person can walk into the li-brary and hear strange noises coming from the reading room. One might think the library is haunted. It is in fact, not. The noises projecting from the reading room are actually voice inflec-tions of various characters of books made up by Jones Academy’s principal, Mr. Ray. Every now and then, Mr. Ray visits the school library and reads a book to the younger students. This month in honor of Halloween Mr. Ray read "Click Clack Boo” to the first and second grad-ers. Mr. Ray stresses the importance of reading to the students and enjoys spending quality time with them.

Library News

The Batmobile has been spotted in Hartshorne, Oklahoma! The elementary boys from Jones Academy attending the after school program at Hartshorne Elementary, recently got an opportu-nity to see the Batmobile up close and personal. Hot rod builders, Randy Roden and Mel Taylor, are credited with building this replica of the fa-mous car from a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville. The men enjoy seeing the excitement of Batman fans as they drive around the local towns and attend local venues in Oklahoma where they stop and let people get a closer look at this replica of the caped crusaders incredible automobile.

Holy Batwings, Robin! It’s The Batmobile!!!