One of the fondest memories Shemah Crosby has of her grandmother Lena is the time they spent together hand crafting Choctaw Indian traditional dresses, sewing elaborate appliqués onto colourful fabrics.
When her "pokni", the Choctaw term for grandmother, died of COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic in 2020, the 20-year-old student lost not only a beloved family member but a wealth of knowledge about her Native American tribe, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
