Native American Heritage Month honored through poster contest

Angelina Rodriguez placed first and Lilly Kate Haynes placed second in a poster contest offered to Livingston High School students in dual credit courses to learn about and celebrate Native American History Month during November. Both students are students in Debra Jenke’s federal government class at Angelina College Polk County Center. (l-r) Rodriguez, Jenke and Haynes. Courtesy photo

From Enterprise Staff

Livingston High School students in dual credit classes learned about Native American Heritage Month during November. The students were able to participate in a poster contest in history, government, English, sociology, Spanish and education classes. Posters were to contain at least five facts about Native American Heritage and at least one graphic.

Faculty within the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences of Angelina College in Lufkin narrowed the field to six finalists. The Lufkin campus faculty team was facilitated by history instructor Michael Smith (whose mother was one-quarter Choctaw and one-quarter Cherokee), history/government instructor Duane Choate, psychology instructor Benetha Jackson and sociology instructor Sandra Johnson.

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Final winners were chosen by Alabama-Coushatta Tribal Council Chairman Ricky Sylestine and his son Joshua Sylestine.

Both winners were students in Social and Behavioral Sciences Department Chair Debra Jenke’s federal government class at Angelina College Polk County Center. First place was awarded to Angelina Rodriguez and second place was awarded to Lilly Kate Haynes.

Rodriguez’ poster was titled “The Vanishing Indian.” She opened her poster with “Native American Heritage month is an opportunity to educate the general public about the unique challenges that native people have faced historically and in the present. The Myth of the Vanishing Indian was a national prophecy pursued by the federal government throughout the nineteenth century. It was aligned with the belief that American territorial expansion by white settlers was inevitable and preordained by God.”

Haynes focused her poster on the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas; she gave a history on tribe origins and presented a timeline of history from the 1780’s to 1987 (the 1987 Restoration Act giving federal recognition.)

Angelina College faculty and Tribal Council Chair Rick Sylestine and son Joshua Sylestine all remarked that they were very impressed with the works submitted. It was obvious that the students put much time and effort into their study of history and their submitted work.