Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
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LaShawna Fields, Jr. Miss Cherokee 2001

MARBLE CITY, OK - After a year representing the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma, as Junior Miss Cherokee, LaShawna Fields, a freshman at Sallisaw High School, is back to being a regular student.

Fields, whose reign as Junior Miss Cherokee ends this weekend, spent the past year representing her tribe at many functions throughout the Cherokee Nation and the United States. She led the invocation at a national tribal youth conference in Michigan and for the grand opening of several of the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation’s regional offices.

"It’s been fun meeting a bunch of different people", Fields said of her year as Junior Miss Cherokee. "I’ve learned how to communicate with people better. I am able to go up to people and say hello."

Fields graduated from Marble City School as valedictorian, but her Junior Miss Cherokee duties kept her so busy she had to forego her usual summer of softball.

"I missed playing softball this summer", Fields said. "I would’ve missed a lot of practices and games so I decided not to play."

Fields says she will resume playing softball again now that her life is getting back to normal, but has at least one more competition in her.

"When I’m old enough to compete, I want to be Miss Cherokee."

Fields is the daughter of L.S. and Treva Fields of Marble City.