“Mahtoqehs didn’t like these People very much,” one of Indian Island School’s eighth-graders says, trying out the word at first, then confidently repeating it in full as she rehearses her part in an upcoming performance by her class.

Roger Paul, Wabanaki language teacher at Indian Island School, nods, a smile stretching across his face. He gives her an ecstatic double thumbs up and she smiles back, encouraged.

Mahtoqehs, a light-hearted trickster animal of Wabanaki folktales, is one of many characters Indian Island School’s fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders brought to life during a recent performance put on for their family and friends Friday, Jan. 29, in the Indian Island School gymnasium.

The performance was created as part of Penobscot Theatre Company’s residency program. Amy Roeder, PTC’s director of education, and Ben Layman, resident teaching artist, spent five days with children from Indian Island School. With the help of language teacher Roger Paul, Roeder and Layman created dramatizations of folktales rooted in native culture for the Indian Island community to enjoy.

“We were specifically addressing Wabanaki and Penobscot culture and wrote pieces based on cultural stories that have been handed down from generation to generation,” Roeder said.

The PTC residency program is offered for a fee to schools to complement curriculum. Indian Island School participated for the first time this year, choosing to book a weeklong engagement culminating in the performance. Last year PTC did residencies of various lengths at nine different schools, and there are seven schools set for this year, including Indian Island School.

“We haven’t been doing a lot of residencies in the area — it’s been mostly far away — so it was also a chance for us to get to know our neighbors,” Roeder said.

Indian Island School, which was built in 1988, displays many parts of native culture itself. Murals of tribal ancestors decorate walls and a smattering of native language can be found posted around the school, adding elements of art, education and culture to immerse students in the workings of their past, present and future.

Rehearsals for the performance took place in a cultural building on school grounds, where basket weaving is taught to the children and handmade items sit in boxes, waiting for their makers to return.

Throughout the week, Layman, Roeder and Paul occupied the building, creating separate performances with three groups of students. They began their days with vocal exercises, stretching and activities to spark their creativity, then went immediately into rehearsing the content of their scripts.

“The students grabbed on with both hands, and they really took this project as their own,” Paul said of the students’ participation.

For Paul, who acted as liaison between the school and PTC and also attended and oftentimes participated in their rehearsals, encouraging students to use their native language in this way was simply another way to keep it alive.

“These stories are usually told in the wintertime to the children,” Paul said. “There are value teachings in these stories, but they’re told in a format where children can understand and enjoy them.”

Interspersed throughout the stories, two of which Paul put into writing himself, were words native to the Penobscots and Wabanaki as a whole.

The sixth- and seventh-graders began the evening by performing a tale titled “How the Chipmunk Got His Stripes,” followed by a fifth-grade rendition of “The Woods Monster” and concluding with “Why Rabbit Has No Tail” by the eighth-graders.

“Within our language is the perspective of our culture,” Paul said. “We don’t have to teach much of our culture if we teach the language. Our language is so descriptive. It’s describes the world through the eyes of our ancestors.”

Before the performance began in the school’s gymnasium, young children scurried back and forth, giggling and shouting. Parents filed through the doors, filling the bleachers, while the tribe’s elders took seats designated for them in the front. Speakers of the language reacted noticeably when hearing words they recognized spoken aloud.

When the eighth-graders performed, one child yelled “okiya,” which, roughly translated to English, means “ouch.” The crowd erupted in laughter when hearing the word spoken as part of the performance.

Roeder said she was overwhelmed by the turnout and the support from the school.

One of the custodians stayed after hours to help decorate, the art teacher pitched in with backdrops for the performance and school faculty banded together to create a spread of treats for everyone to enjoy once the show was over.

“Everybody in the school pulled together to make it happen,” Roeder said.

As the students stood in front of the crowd Friday evening, they recited words from their native language confidently, while Paul watched from the side, smiling and nodding.

“The more we encourage them to use our language, the longer it survives,” Paul said.