ᎣᏏᏲ Osiyo! Ella Mounce is the 20-year-old daughter of Michael and Tonia Mounce. She is the granddaughter of Louise Mounce. Her Cherokee name is ᏣᎨᏳᎢ (Tsa-Ge-Yu-I), and she is part of the Wolf clan. She is a sophomore at Northeastern State University, where she majors in Graphic Art. She is involved in several organizations on campus, including the Aspiring Educators Association (AEA), where she is the treasurer, and the Northeastern Student Government Association (NSGA), where she serves as a senator on the judicial committee.
She is an active community member, volunteering with the Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center and JOM programs in her spare time, helping with their cultural events. Over the summers, she works as a Camp Cherokee Counselor, teaching kids more about their culture. She also loves spending time with her family, singing and playing music with her father, spending time talking with her mother, and learning how to make cultural crafts and play native games with her cousins and uncles.
Her platform as Miss Cherokee is encouraging language and culture early in our youth. She believes that the revitalization of our culture begins with our youth and wants to encourage parents to pass on all the knowledge they have to their children, no matter how much they may know. She wants parents not to be ashamed to encourage their kids to use the language and talk about their culture openly, because only by not being ashamed of their culture will it begin to thrive.
