Speaking from personal experience, any Native American pageant held for a female leadership ambassador is not an easy task to take upon oneself. I say this because one day while talking with friends under the stars, they did not understand what I was talking about. Their knowledge of pageants were very much based upon "Miss Congeniality" movies.
No. Just NO. Not in Indian Country. *ahos inserted here*
The people who carry these titles are chosen based on their performance and character demonstrated through rigorous competition, not beauty alone.
They represent so much more than their outward appearance, they carry legacies of resilience in their blood, knowledge, from their beaded or silver crowns to the beaded or woven sashes wrapped around them – they represent us all.
Native American pageants are not beauty pageants. Royalty ambassadors are not beauty queens.
They are leaders of all ages. They are role models. They are hope that despite genocide, we are here celebrating ourselves in all of our indigenous bad-assery.
For the majority that may not know how we do things in Indigenous communities, the women work their butts off for the chance to compete for a title. (Yes, a title just like boxing/MMA/UFC/etc.)
These titles have levels. There are royalty ambassadors for different organizations like schools and universities, tribal nations, powwow dance competitions, rodeos, veteran awareness, and so many more.
There are girls and boys of all ages that have royalty titles to represent their schools. There are college aged youth that have titles, along with tribal nations that have their ambassadors to speak and discuss their platforms for advocacy.
Skilled dancers that use their titles to travel and spread awareness on different issues. Veteran support organizations that have an ambassador to raise awareness because they care. Rodeo royalty show their skills and talents to represent their people and communities to a different audience.
How do people receive these titles? They compete for them.
There is an application process for everyone and a review process where they look at your educational background, community involvement, employment, extracurricular activities, awards and achievements. Sometimes they'll ask for recommendation letters.
Once someone is selected through the application they are given instructions for the competition. For example, they may prepare a traditional talent specific to their culture: a contemporary, typically Western talent.
In my case, I sang a Navajo song about how dancing makes people happy and healthy and braided my best friend's waist length hair into a flower up-do with accessories in a limited time.
There are impromptu questions asked to contestants. The questions vary from topics like social injustice and current events to personal questions, plans of action and visions for the future.
No, no one answers, "world peace."
This is where the audience and judges see the internal strength the contestants have, which reflect their families and communities.
Ugh, so beautiful!
Sometimes there may be additional tasks that depend on the title that is being competed for.
Since I am Navajo, my high school's royalty competition added extra events such as live sheep butchering, fry-bread making, serving guests a feast, cleaning, interactions with the community, teaching other contestants, Navajo cake mixing, corn husk sewing and a list of other activities.
These tasks make everything so much more interesting! People of all ages are invited to see how young women or men apply their ancestral knowledge immediately.
I cannot tell you how uplifting it is to see grandmas and grandpas laughing and observing, often commenting on things done right or wrong. It warms my heart also seeing kids as small as toddlers watching and saying that they want to grow up and do that too.
My favorite part is that there is no "ideal body image" emphasized. There are so many beautiful, strong indigenous women with bodies in different forms, skin tones, hair textures and communities from so many different tribal nations.
**Note: this is not for Settler stealing purposes or intentions.**
Cover Photo by https://www.instagram.com/p/Bks5LpZAsP0/?taken-by=missindianworldpageant
