At 22 years old, Lauren John has already accumulated an impressive list of professional accomplishments with projects that combine her talents, education and drive to preserve Chickasaw history, language and culture.
She has illustrated two publications for the Chickasaw Press, brought lessons in the Chickasaw language to life in the Rosetta Stone Chickasaw series and was a featured filmmaker at Chickasaw Cultural Center’s Holba’ Pisachi’ (“Showing Pictures”) Native Film Festival last summer, just to name a few accomplishments.
John, a Chickasaw citizen, worked as a producer and background artist on the animated film, “The Shepherd’s Flock,” which was selected for the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) film festival circuit, is also recognized by The Rookie Awards as a finalist for Film of the Year in the 2D animation category and has received its Excellence Award.
“The Shepherd’s Flock” was screened at the annual festival, and she was part of a Q&A session with other filmmakers. The film was her senior thesis project at SCAD, where she earned a bachelor’s in animation in June.
“I was really honored whenever they offered to show my film there,” John said. “I wasn’t nervous about showing my film because I’m very proud of how it came out and its quality, so I wasn’t necessarily worried about how people would receive it. I was more worried about the Q&A, about the kind of questions that I would get, specifically whenever it came to some more technical things.
“I hope this is the first of many films. It helps preserve our tribe’s language and culture, something I am really passionate about,” she said during the Q&A session.
Growing up in Ada, Oklahoma, John credits the Chickasaw Nation’s camps, academies and programs, particularly the Chickasaw Arts Academy, for introducing her to art, as well as the realization of the urgent need to preserve the Chickasaw language.
“During a session of arts academy, professional language speakers gave us a brief lesson about our language and words that we should know. At the very end, they had this little guessing game, saying, ‘How many fluent speakers or fluent speaking elders do we have in our tribe?’
“When I heard the actual number, it shocked me. Hearing that made me want to work to preserve the language in earnest because even though we do have fluent speakers still, even beyond our elders, it is getting to a point where I need to step up to be one of the people to really help.”
Her grandmother, Pauline Brown, a Chickasaw elder and native speaker, died in 2022, which also drives John to work on projects to preserve the language and culture.
“We are losing that source very quickly, and I really want to help out to preserve those stories before they are all gone.”
One avenue she is lending her talents to is Rosetta Stone Chickasaw, where she has helped with graphic design development since 2018.
The Chickasaw Press has published two of the stories from Rosetta Stone. A 2024 release, “Loksi’ Ishkin Homma’ (Turtle’s Red Eyes),” as told by her late grandmother, is illustrated by John. “Loksi’ Ishkin Homma’ (Turtle’s Red Eyes)” is part of the Nannanoli’ (Story) Series. It’s a colorfully illustrated Chickasaw oral story as told by the late Chickasaw elder Brown. Readers can scan a QR code to hear the fluent speaker share this traditional story in Chikashshanompa’ (the Chickasaw language). The Nannanoli’ (Story) Series is a line of titles that combine the Chickasaw traditions of language and storytelling.
John also illustrated “Chikasha Chahta’ oklaat wihat tanowattook” (The Migration Story of the Chickasaw and Choctaw People), in which readers of all ages discover the journey of Chiksa’ and Chahta while learning the sacred Migration Story in both Chickasaw and English. The book was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
She has also worked as a teaching assistant for the Chickasaw Arts Academy in 2022 and 2023, experiencing a full circle moment from being a student to becoming a teacher and inspiring the next generation of artists.
John became interested in the art of animation at a young age, as she watched some of her favorite animated classics.
“My favorite Pixar movie of all time is ‘Ratatouille.’ I just loved the message that it had about artistry and how anyone could do it.”
In high school, she attended the Pontotoc Technology Center, Ada, and studied graphic arts. She said it gave her a solid foundation to pursue a degree in the animation field.
Serving as both Chickasaw Junior Princess and Little Miss Chickasaw in her youth provided a broad perspective of First Americans in the United States and helped her develop critical life skills.
“Whenever I was Junior Miss, I realized what the word ambassador meant. It was interesting because whenever we would go to events, we would meet all the different princesses from their tribes, and we got to compare our cultures. It was interesting and fun,” John said.
“It really taught me about speaking with other people and improving those skills that I needed in order to grow into being the person who I am today.”
John is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sequential art at SCAD and continues to incorporate the Chickasaw culture into her art to represent her tribe.
“That is something I’ve always tried to do while I was here at SCAD because there is less than 1% of Native American population as students. I always made it a personal goal of mine to incorporate anything related to our tribe and culture into all my assignments, and I succeeded, for the most part.”
She is thankful to the Chickasaw Nation for supporting her academic goals while she attends the prestigious private art school.
“Thanks to the Chickasaw Foundation scholarships and the Chickasaw Nation higher education for grants like the textbook grant, laptop grants and the clothing grants. It all really helped ease the burden of paying for tuition.”
Her goal is to return to the Chickasaw Nation and continue to preserve and share Chickasaw history, language and culture.
“I’ve been interning with the (Chickasaw) Press for the past two years. I want to work for the tribe and keep doing what I’m doing,” she said. “Whenever I first applied to the internship program, I wasn’t sure how the press would complement my degree in animation, but we found a way to implement the things that I learned and the things that I wanted to do while simultaneously helping with our tribe’s future and the preservation of our language.”
John is the daughter of Tom and Lisa John, of Ada.
For more information about John’s projects, visit Shortcakesnake.art. For more information about Chickasaw Press, visit ChickasawPress.com.