As Native American Heritage Month ends, we want to highlight one school in particular that went above and beyond to make sure students not only learned about the cultures around them but also celebrated them. This year, Lesslie Elementary School held the inaugural Ye Iswa Festival aimed to honor the Catawba Nation.

Assistant Principal Dr. Tanner Slagle and fifth grade teacher Amy Giles, two educators leading this cultural initiative, wanted the event to be about more than just recognizing the Catawba Nation. "It's about honoring our students and the community," Slagle said. "We want to honor our students' community and use it as a teaching opportunity for our other students."

Lesslie has a significant percentage of students from the Catawba Nation. As a way to show respect and appreciation for this, the school incorporated a variety of cultural teachings and practices that will help all students learn. The goal was to provide a fun, interactive, and educational experience. "We love to give kids chances to do pottery, look at the regalia, and learn a few words," Slagle said. "We want a nice mix of giving everyone the opportunity to learn and taking something away from this experience."

With the help of Kassidy Pliler, a Lesslie parent who works at the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project, Lesslie administrators and teachers were able to provide six educational sections: Artifacts and Read Aloud, Play-Doh Pottery Studio, Catawba Storytelling, Corn Stamp Activity, Catawba Regalia and History, and The Catawba Language Project.

"The hope was that this event will serve as a 'nice little bridge' to bring students together through the shared experience of learning," Slagle said.

It did just that, especially for the Catawba Nation students who got to share with their classmates. Bristol H., Banks C., and Waylon W. were excited to end the Ye Iswa Festival showcasing their dances. “I really love it because I get to share my culture with my classmates and it makes me feel really good and joyful that I get to share it," Bristol, who performed the Fancy Dance, a traditional dance for girls featuring handmade regalia, said.

Banks and Waylon were involved in other forms of dance. Banks performed the Grass Dance, a dance historically associated with hunting and setting up camp, where dancers stomp on the ground to simulate the act of flattening grass for a teepee. Waylon performed the Woodland Dance, which also draws on traditional practices, but he said with different regalia and a faster style. "Dancing in the festival is going to be the most exciting," Banks said. "We are excited to do flutes too because we bought them last year and now we are going to use them at school." 

For each student, the dancing was fun, but meaningful since it gave others the chance to understand. "It feels really exciting because I am pretty sure no one has seen this type of experience in our school," he said. "I am thinking our classmates will say, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.'"

Ultimately, this initiative represents more than just a one-time event. The goal is to create lasting awareness and inspire future programming that connects students to more educational opportunities with the Catawba Nation. "I hope this continues to open the door for programming and more events and learning with us and the Catawba Nation because it is just so important," Slagle said.

Watch our video to see the activities Lesslie Elementary held at the Ye Iswa Festival: