Miss Native American pagent highlights traditional values

Brian D. Rothschild Arizona Daily Wildcat Traditional native dancers perform ritual dances and chants during the Fourth Annual Wildcat Pow Wow at Bear Down Field yesterday.

"I needed to prove to people and to myself that I am not a failure," said Kimberly Arthur, an environmental science freshman, who was receiving hugs from well-wishers after the pageant.

"This is a way to let people know who I am."

As the new Miss Native American of the University of Arizona, Arthur said she plans to focus on telling others the importance of education and having self-esteem.

"You don't need drugs or alcohol to be yourself," she said. "Even if being yourself is not Miss Popularity."

The 16th-annual Miss Native American Pageant, sponsored by the UA's American Indian Club, is a way to choose a cultured individual to represent the university, said Orlandthi Yazzie, the club's president and an architecture junior.

Yazzie said the pageant winner would represent Native Americans at parades, speak at UA functions and attend powwows.

The two women who competed for the title in the Memorial Student Union Arizona Ballroom were judged in an evening gown competition, contemporary and traditional talent presentations, and their ability to answer impromptu questions.

For her contemporary talent, a skill learned away from the home, Arthur made the audience of about 100 people laugh at her cheerleading rendition.

"Theater is a way of getting out of reality and becoming someone different," she said.

"I am allowed to be anyone I want to."

Art education sophomore Janet Deschinny, who was crowned Miss Native American UA's first attendant, read three poems, one of which was "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelo.

Tom Holm, master of ceremonies and a professor of Native American Studies, said he thought the traditional talent presentation was the most important part of the pageant.

"Traditional talent demonstrates that these young women know who they are and that they are devoted to what has been taught in their families," Holm said.

Arthur showed the audience how to tie a woman's hair into a traditional bun.

"In the Navajo culture long hair is knowledge, wisdom, and it shows self-respect - it represents part of your mind," Arthur said.

"It's not right to have your hair fly away."

Holm said the pageant celebrated the women not only because of their tradition, but for their courage and devotion to school.

"The main point of this evening is to celebrate that they (the contestants) can adapt to this world and remember where they came from and who they are," Holm said.

"Many people go in circles because they have one foot in a canoe and the other in a speed boat - I would like to think they are going in a straight line."

The Miss Native American UA Pageant is part of the Fourth Annual Wildcat Pow Wow sponsored by the UA's Tribal People United.

The powwow took place Saturday and Sunday on Bear Down Field.