A Day in the Life Of...

by Mylinda Antoinette (and two friends who shall be anonymous)

Summary: Jennie, a ninth grader and a 1/4 blooded Cherokee, is complaining about having to go to school, so her mother takes Jennie to her grandfather's house, where her grandfather tells her what it was like to not be allowed to go to school... simply for being a full-blooded Cherokee.

Author's note: My friends and I wrote this for our Creative Writing class. The assignment was to create a pilot episode of a television show. So we did. We styled the show a little like Wishbone, with parts in the present and parts in the past, like how in Wishbone, there are parts that are real life and parts that are reenactments of popular books. So I hope you enjoy our first episode, entitled 'A Cherokee Child'. I will explain the two Cherokee words at the end of the story, in case you can't figure them out from context clues...

And yes, I am part Cherokee myself. Not as much as Jennie, but I think my dad said it was something like my great-great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee, so...

Act 1- NOW!

Characters:

Jennie - a young girl in the ninth grade who complains about school

Lisa (Salali) - Jennie’s mother

Tooantuh - Lisa’s father, Jennie’s grandfather; very proud of his Cherokee heritage

In the second ‘Now’ section there is a brief reference to ‘Lucas’. Lucas is Lisa’s husband and Jennie’s father.

Scene 1:

Jennie: I can’t believe my teachers gave me all this homework again. I hate school!

Lisa: Jennie, stop complaining, you’ll get everything done; you always do! And you know, Jennie, it hasn’t always been this easy!

Jennie: Easy? You call this easy? Mom- it’s algebra!

Lisa: Jennie, you should be glad you even have an education. Anyway, it’s time to go. Are you ready?

Jennie: Go? Where are we going?

Lisa: We’re going to visit your grandfather, remember?

Jennie: Oh, not him! I’m tired of hearing all his stories about “In my day”!

Lisa: Fine, you can just stay here and do that homework.

Jennie: (sighs) All right, all right- I’ll go.

Lisa: (smirks) And bring your homework to work on while we’re driving!

Jennie: (rolls eyes) Fine…

Scene 2:

They arrive at the house of Tooantuh, Jennie’s grandfather, shortly after and knock on the front door.

Tooantuh: (slightly muffled voice in Native American accent) I told you people already, I’m not interested in your… (opens door) Oh, it is my granddaughter. Come on in.

Lisa: Hi, Dad!

Jennie: Hello, Grandpa.

Tooantuh: (raises hand in “how” gesture) How… are you?

Lisa: (rolls eyes a little) Nice, Dad… Um, I’m gonna go… clean the kitchen and maybe make a snack or something. I think you need to have a talk with Jennie.

Jennie shoots a brief, pleading stare at her mother, which goes ignored and she turns back in time to meet her grandfather’s gaze with a smile.

Tooantuh: (makes hand into a sign language ‘C’ and taps his chest with it) Cherokee- you should be proud of your heritage, young one… (shoots a glare at Lisa)… unlike your mother.

Lisa: (glares at her father) Dad, just because I changed my name, married someone who wasn’t of Cherokee descent, and gave my daughter a non-Cherokee name doesn’t mean that I don’t treasure my heritage! I really am very proud of it!

Tooantuh: (sighs sadly) If you say so, Salali. (murmurs under breath) Youth… I weep for them…

Lisa: (rolls her eyes) Dad, back to Jennie. She was complaining about school, and that’s why I brought her here.

Tooantuh: (grows solemn) Oh. (turns to Jennie) Come with me.

They enter the “Indian Room- filled with woven blankets, arrowheads and moccasins” and sit down on beanbags.

Tooantuh: There was once a time, more than forty years ago, you know, in my day…

Jennie: (murmurs under breath) Oh boy, here we go again…

Tooantuh: When I was just a young boy, I was the second of four children, and the second of two boys. I had an older brother, but he was killed in a hunting accident along with my father when he was not much older than you. I was a little younger than you are now… 13 winters, I think. But at that age, with no father, I became the head of the house and the family representative.

Characters:

Tooantuh - a young man living with his family on a Cherokee reservation

Awinita - Tooantuh’s baby sister

Adsila - Tooantuh’s mother, who tries to take care of the family

Tayanita - Tooantuh’s younger sister

Galilahi - Tooantuh’s friend, who is chosen to go to school because she is only half Cherokee

Amadahy - Tooantuh’s wife, with whom Tooantuh has a daughter

Salali (Lisa) - Tooantuh and Amadahy’s first child

Scene 1:

Adsila comes out holding a baby Awinita and looking very solemn, almost sad. Tooantuh is sitting on the ground working on something and Tayanita is not far away, working on her own little project.

Tooantuh stands up, throwing his project to the ground.

Tooantuh: I’m tired of just sitting around! I need some action. I’m going hunting!

Tayanita: Brother! (runs to him) Can I come?

Adsila: No! Tayanita, you will help me dry the skins. Come.

Tayanita: Yes, Unitsi!

Adsila: (to Tooantuh) Be careful, son, and don’t stay out after dark.

Tooantuh: I won’t, Unitsi.

Adsila: (as an afterthought) Oh, and take your spear with you and get some fish for our dinner tonight!

Tooantuh: Yes, Unitsi.

Later that day… Tooantuh comes home with a small rabbit and some fish.

Adsila: What took you so long?

Tooantuh: The string on my bow broke. I had to stop and fix it.

Adsila: Okay, go clean the fish and take care of the rabbit, but be careful while you are removing the rabbit’s skin- I will use the pelt to make a blanket for Awinita!

Tayanita comes running into the clearing at full speed.

Tayanita: Unitsi, there are white men in the village! Come and look!

Baby Awinita starts to cry.

Adsila: Tayanita, go watch Awinita. I’ll go with your brother to look.

Tayanita: Yes, Unitsi!

Scene 2:

Adsila and Tooantuh arrive in the village center to see a white man standing there, about to speak.

White Man: Hello, my name is John.

Tooantuh: (quietly, to Adsila) Hee hee… what a funny name!

White Man: There is a school in our land, far from here. We are willing to take 5 children to this school by train tomorrow at noon. Any children who want to go must come to me and answer a few questions.

Adsila: (shoves Tooantuh forward slightly) Tooantuh, you must go! An education- think of it! It will help the tribe!

Tooantuh steps forward and stands in front of the man. Before his questions start, a girl runs up to Adsila.

Adsila: Ah, Galilahi! It is good to see you, young one!

Galilahi: It is good to see you, too, Auntie!

Adsila: So you have heard about the school?

Galilahi: Of course! Unitsi wishes that I see if I can get into the school, as does my stepfather!

Tooantuh’s questions begin.

White Man: How old are you?

Tooantuh: 13 winters.

White Man: (writes it down) Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Tooantuh: Yes, two sisters, and a brother… but he is no longer with us.

White Man: And your parents?

Tooantuh: (points) My mother is over there, but my father was killed in a hunting accident with my brother.

White Man: Is your mother Cherokee?

Tooantuh: Yes.

White Man: And your father?

Tooantuh: Yes.

White Man looks over the information he has written on his clipboard.

White Man: I’m sorry; you’re not what we’re looking for. Please step out of the line.

Tooantuh: (confused) What are you looking for?

White Man: Next! Step out of the line.

Galilahi steps up to White Man next.

White Man: How old are you?

Galilahi: 13 winters.

White Man: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Galilahi: Two sisters and a new baby brother.

White Man: And your parents?

Galilahi: I have a mother, a father, and a stepfather. I do not know where my father is; he ran away many winters ago, but my mother and stepfather live here on the reservation.

White Man: Is your mother Cherokee?

Galilahi: Yes.

White Man: And your father?

Galilahi: No, he was a white man.

White Man: (looks over the notes he has taken) Good. Perfect. Excellent. Please stand over there.

Tooantuh’s face contorts into a look of shock and jealousy.

Scene 3:

Later that day… Adsila and Tooantuh return from the village center just as it starts to turn dark.

Tooantuh: Galilahi was chosen to go to the school! Just because I’m full blooded Cherokee, they said I can not go! I have to stay right here on this degrading reservation! It’s not fair!

Adsila: At least it’s a home, Tooantuh. At least they didn’t kill us or imprison us, or take away the women and children.

Tooantuh: It still is not fair! Being Cherokee is something to be proud of!

Adsila: Not in the eyes of the white men, Tooantuh. We are as strange to them as they are to us! You said today that you thought John was a strange and funny name. I bet they would say the same about your name. To them, we aren’t important. They think that being Cherokee is something we should be ashamed of, and that is why it angers them to see us so proud of our culture.

Tooantuh: (sighs) I know you are right, Unitsi, but I still wish I could go to school with Galilahi and the other four from our village who were chosen. I have seen how people’s lives have been affected by lack of an education, and I do not want to end up the same way they are! I want to be preposterous!

Adsila: (corrects him gently) Prosperous, Tooantuh.

Tooantuh: Oh… whatever. I want to be able to easily support a wife and many children! I want to be able to read like the white children and the Cherokee children who have gone to school!

Adsila: And I pray to the Gods, my son, that you will one day have that chance. But for now, you will have to settle for anything that Galilahi will be able to teach you on her visits home.

Scene 4:

5 years later…Tooantuh is 18 and married with a very small child. Galilahi is finally back from school.

Tooantuh: Galilahi! It’s been 5 full winters since you left for the school! You are here; you have returned!

Galilahi: Tooantuh, my friend, it’s been a very long time.

Tooantuh: You must meet my wife, Amadahy, and my new daughter, Salali.

Galilahi: I am so happy for you, Tooantuh! It is wonderful to meet you, Amadahy! And Salali is so beautiful, my friend. The Gods have truly blessed you in giving you something as wonderful as a family! (digs in her bag and pulls out a book) I have brought books for the village children!

Tooantuh looks at Amadahy; then both lower their heads.

Amadahy: (softly, with a sad tone) Galilahi, the children cannot read.

Galilahi smiles happily, resting a hand on her friends’ shoulders, causing them to look up at her.

Galilahi: I know they cannot read, my friends, and that is why I am going to start a school here. I will teach them all both the Cherokee language and that of the white people, and the language of the white people’s writings. They will learn to read and write, and to do the arithmetic of the white people, but most importantly, I will teach them about our nation’s proud history. My hope is that the school will make things better for our people, or at least for our people’s children. The other four who went with me are going to help me with the school when they return.

Tooantuh and Amadahy look at each other and then look back at Galilahi with a smile and Amadahy holds the baby out a little towards her.

Amadahy: Well then, I see that you have already met your first pupil! Tooantuh and I will send Salali to your school as soon as she is old enough!

Galilahi: (smiles) Somehow, I knew you would!

Characters: Same as Act 1

Scene 1:

An elderly Tooantuh is back in the Indian Room, sitting on the cushion across from the one Jennie is sitting on, preparing to finish his tale.

Tooantuh: And it was wonderful. A school- simple perhaps, but it was a major development for our people, and the children learned so much!

Jennie: (appears pensive) Wow. I never knew it was like that.

Tooantuh: As you can see, your mother is much better off than I am, and it’s all thanks to the education she got at Galilahi’s school. Her school is still standing on the reservation, even down to this day. And the village leaders were so impressed at the incredible difference her school made in the status of the nation, they provided more funding for her school. It has expanded multiple times over the years, and today is recognized, even by the non-Cherokee, as one of the best schools for miles around.

Jennie: That’s incredible. I never realized how much difference an education makes in a person’s life.

Lisa walks in, her purse on her shoulder.

Lisa: Jennie, are you ready to go? We have to meet your father back at the house.

Jennie looks at her, clearly sad that it’s time to go.

Jennie: Aw, Mom, do we have to leave now? I’ll have plenty of time to finish my homework when we get home! Right now I want to hear more of Grandpa’s- uh, I mean Ududu’s stories!

Lisa looks incredulously at her daughter for a second while Tooantuh looks surprised- and then both smile.

Lisa: Well, your grandfather was noted as the greatest storyteller on the reservation. (sits in a chair) You know, Dad, I wouldn’t mind hearing another story myself. Lucas knows how to feed himself.

Tooantuh smiles happily as Jennie giggles.

Tooantuh: Well, perhaps I should tell you about the time, back in my day, when a herd of buffalo stampeded through the camp…

His voice trails off as the scene ends.

Scene 2:

Jennie and Lisa arrive back at their house. Lucas is upstairs working in his office.

Lisa: Those stories were great. Dad has told me those stories before, but I never get tired of hearing them.

Jennie: (smiles and nods) Yeah, I can see why. He really is very skilled at telling stories. (looks at her watch) Well, I gotta go. See you later! (turns to run off)

Lisa: Go? Where are you going, Jennie?

Jennie: (looks incredulously at her mother) I’m going to my room to work on my homework, Mom! I need to turn it in tomorrow, and I don’t want it to be late.

Lisa: (looks at Jennie, surprised) Okay… great! After you finish, would you like to help me with dinner?

Jennie: Sure!

Lisa: Okay, see you in a little while!

Jennie: Oh… and Mom?

Lisa: Yes?

Jennie: (smiles) Thanks.

Lisa: Thanks? Thanks for what?

Jennie: For making me go to Grandfather’s house!

Lisa: Oh… well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. Now go finish that work!

Jennie: (says teasingly) Yes, Unitsi!

THE END!

Okay, please leave a review on your way out. Now, let me see about those Cherokee words...

Unitsi- Mother

Ududu- Grandfather

I hope you enjoyed reading this!