‘It’s been such an honor.’ Miss Native MCC to transfer crown in upcoming pageant
The Miss Native Mesa Community College Pageant will determine the college’s next Native American student ambassador on Nov. 21, a position that comes with an increased number of responsibilities since years past.
At the end of her yearlong reign, Kadence Sayles, a creative writing major and the current Miss Native MCC, will pass the crown to either Raegen Ellis or Tanielle Klah, both members of the Navajo Nation.
Sayles, a member of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation with partial Lakota lineage, won last year’s pageant in its first edition since 2017. The First Attendant was Kaitlyn Yazzie of the Navajo Nation, now a student at Arizona State University.
“It’s been such an honor to take on that role,” Sayles said. “It’s honestly very bittersweet to be ending my reign soon,” she continued.
Sayles and Yazzie made a variety of public appearances representing Miss Native MCC, including the 2024 Thunderbird Powwow, the 2024 Orange Shirt Day Open Mic and the 2024 graduation ceremony. Sayles expressed her gratitude for her colleagueship with Yazzie over the course of their reign.
The Miss Native MCC Pageant began in 2014 and previously appointed four different Native women to the position, but went on hiatus after the 2017-18 pageant. The Inter-Tribal Student Organization played a large role in the pageant’s restoration and the increase in community involvement from the ambassadors, according to Sayles.
“It reset the precedent of what that image [of Miss Native] looks like, what our involvement is and what we wanted to actively do,” Sayles clarified.
The responsibilities behind representing the institution’s Indigenous population are typically left up to the representatives, according to Margaret Talia White, a senior student support specialist at the American Indian Institute (AII).
“Luckily, Kadence and Kaitlyn, this past year, they really invested a lot of time and effort in making sure that they were visible at different cultural events and being able to participate and really put Mesa Community College’s name out there for Indigenous communities,” White said.
The focus on Native women in the pageant comes from the cultural roles of women in Indigenous cultures, according to White.
“A lot of our Indigenous cultures are matriarchal, and acknowledging our women as our caretakers, as these pillars of support and comfort and strength and resilience is really important,” White specified.
AII will host the pageant this Thursday in the Navajo Room at 6 p.m. as part of a series of Indigenous-centered events this November, which is also Native American Heritage Month.
Sayles offered a piece of advice for the contestants: “This reign will be what you make out of it,” she said.
