Area students win honors at OU Native Language Fair

NORMAN — Pawhuska-area students received honors at the 14th-annual Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair held earlier this month at the Sam Noble Museum.

The competition drew 1,186 students in grades pre-K through 12, with participants coming from across Oklahoma and other states.

Competitions were held in 11 different categories — including spoken language, traditional song with language, modern song with language, spoken poetry, spoken prayer, written poetry, cartoon, poster art, book, language advocacy essay and multimedia.

The Osage Immersion Program took third place in the pre-K- through second-grade Large Group Spoken Language category.

Kynlie Jones placed second in the pre-K through grade two “Individual Spoken Prayer” category.

Other Osage Nation Language Department award recipients included:

Henry Pratt, Kristo Revard and Michaela Pratt, who took third place in the third- through fifth-grade “Small Group Spoken Language” category

Kristo Revard, who placed third in both the third- through fifth-grade “Books and Literature” category and the third- through fifth-grade “Comic Books and Cartoons” category

Michaela Pratt, who took first place in the pre-K- through second-grade “Comic Books and Cartoons” category

Henry Pratt, who took second place in the third- through fifth-grade “Comic Books and Cartoons” category

Jacee Leac who received an honorable mention in the pre-K- through second-grade “Poster Art” category

Blythe Hall, who received an honorable mention in the pre-K- through second-grade “Poster Art” category

Josie Lookout, who received an honorable mention in the third- through fifth-grade “Poster Art” category

T.J. Redcorn, who took third place in the ninth- through 12th-grade “Individual Spoken Prayer” category

Noah Shadlow, who received an honorable mention in the ninth- through 12th-grade “Individual Spoken Prayer” category

Jade Jones, who received an honorable mention in the ninth- through 12th-grade “Individual Spoken Prayer” category

Alissa Hamilton received an honorable mention in the ninth- through 12th-grade “Individual Spoken Prayer” category

Lily Jones took third place in the sixth- through eighth-grade “Individual Spoken Prayer” category and first place in the sixth- through eighth-grade Poster Art category

James Young received an honorable mention in the ninth- through 12th-grade “Poster Art” category

Student competitions in a multitude of Native American languages were judged by panels of Native American elders, teachers, artists and authors from many different tribes.

The annual competition helped the museum to set a two-day attendance record of 3,367 persons.

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is located on the University of Oklahoma campus. For more information, call (405) 325-4712 or visit the website: SamNobleMuseum.ou.edu