On Saturday evening, the 72nd Miss Navajo Nation will be crowned in Window Rock, Arizona. And this isn’t your average beauty pageant.
You won’t see any parading in swimsuits and high heels or pageant gowns. Instead, the six contestants have spent this week butchering a sheep and demonstrating their fluency in the Diné language and culture.
Amy N. Reeves-Begaye is the current Miss Navajo Nation. The 25-year-old ASU master's student won the sterling silver and turquoise crown at last year’s competition. Some of her highlights from her yearlong reign include going to the Olympics in Paris this summer tops the list, as well as several trips to Washington, D.C., on official business.
Reeves-Begaye joined the show to talk about her own time as Miss Navajo Nation, the unusual pageant that got her there and what it will feel like to crown a new Miss Navajo.
Full conversation
AMY N. REEVES-BEGAYE: You know, I'm, I'm just a ordinary girl coming from Kayenta, Arizona, and never did I ever think I would end up in these places or have gotten the chance to meet really important people and for them to be able to listen to what I was advocating for and for them to take the time, so I think that was the highlight of my year.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Amazing. So, tell us a little bit about this pageant, like the history of the pageant goes back to the 1950s, right? But it's not like an ordinary beauty pageant in any way. Like, there are no swimsuits, no ball gowns here, you're doing very different things to compete for this title, right?
REEVES-BEGAYE: Yes. So, actually this will be our 72nd annual Miss Navajo Nation pageant. We are very, very different from a regular beauty pageant, and I think what makes our pageant really special is that for the Miss Navajo Nation pageant, our girls go through a weeklong pageant. And so during that time they get judged on, actually, on Monday they will be beginning the butchering competition.
GILGER: Right. So that's not a normal pageant competition activity, right?
REEVES-BEGAYE: Yeah. And so that, that's what makes it really different is we have our girls butcher. I can't remember what year the butchering competition was implemented. And so from that point on the Miss Navajo Nation contestants have butchered a sheep. And you're probably wondering, why do they have to butcher a sheep? It's really out of the ordinary, that's why. I was one of the girls, I always thought, you know, “why do I have to butcher a sheep? It's so hard.” But honestly, though, when I went through the process of learning, I really understood why the butchering was implemented into the pageant.
So, sheep is actually one of our main sources of food. And so, for myself growing up, I always saw my grandma and my aunts and my mom butcher, and I was always afraid and I never knew the purpose behind it. And when I did, for me to be able to carry on that tradition that was passed down from, you know, from my grandma to my mom to me, but, of course, to my great grandma parents and so forth, and to really understand that back then, you know, this was our way of life was butchering to provide food for our homes, and that this was a basic necessity that, you know, our people thought that our young girls should be aware of it.
It's a long process. In the afternoon though, we will be having our traditional foods contest and we pretty much use the meat or the intestines. They will be making multiple other traditional cuisines and they will only have about two hours to complete that. They will be having to cook on an open fire. And so, during that time, they won't be able to use lighter fluid or anything like that.
GILGER: Wow. So, some different activities there. You talked a little bit about what it felt like to have the crown, what did it feel like to win the crown last year? When you spent all this time preparing and deciding to do this and then you won, like, what did that moment feel like?
REEVES-BEGAYE: So if you look back at the pictures when I was crowned, I honestly couldn't believe that I had, I had won, because throughout my years of doing pageants, I never really won. And so I always took, I always took first runner up and honestly, when I came into this competition, I thought, “yeah, I'm probably just going to win a couple of categories and I will be, I will be content with that,” because I know that this pageant is, is very prestigious.
So, when they had called my name, I was standing there thinking, “OK, what did I just get myself into?” Because, yeah, just because all these years, I, you know, I never really experienced, you know, winning in general. And so, when the tables had turned, I thought, “OK, this is it now, this is my moment and I'm going to take advantage of it.” And so, I didn't cry or anything. I was honestly just a deer in headlights thinking like “where is my mom?” I wanted to see my mom and you know, “what is my mom and my dad gonna say?” And just all of those thoughts coming into my mind. And the moment when the crown was placed on my head, I honestly felt really different knowing that my, my life had changed in that very moment.
GILGER: So tell me, I have to ask you about the crown, because this thing is really huge and looks really heavy. It's made of sterling silver?
REEVES-BEGAYE: Yes. So, our crown was actually made by Matthew Charley out of Vanderwagen, New Mexico, and this crown actually weighs two and a half pounds of silver. So, you can imagine, you can imagine how heavy it gets after about an hour and a half. And especially if you're outside in the heat, it tends to heat up just a little bit.
But, the story of the crown, it represents our women deities, Changing Woman, First Woman, White Shell Woman and Spider Woman. So, in the crown, that's why you can kind of see the mother of pearl at the top, you can see the spider webs on the side along with the turquoise that represents your home, your safety net.
I was always told to, to really watch what you say, especially around when you wear turquoise or just any, any stones in general because from my home, teaching from my grandma, it was that our turquoise they hear and they feel everything that you feel and what you say, they listen in a sense they're, they're alive. And so, to be able to have that protection all around me, I'm really grateful for that. I'm going to miss my journey with, with with our beautiful crown.
GILGER: That's a beautiful meaning behind it as well. OK. So, you will very soon be handing over the crown to the new Miss Navajo Nation. What advice do you give to these six young women who are competing this year?
REEVES-BEGAYE: Actually, I've, I really thought about what I wanted to say to them, and from the very moment they became contestants, I told them that this was going to be a journey, a lifetime journey. When you're Miss Navajo Nation, nobody tells you how to be Miss Navajo Nation. There's no rulebook, there's no like, etiquette book or anything like that. It's really based upon how you want to present yourself and that each Miss Navajo Nation, we, we advocate for different things and for myself, it was higher education, but also promoting the values of family teachings within the home.
So, I would just like to say to the next Miss Navajo Nation is to really show who you are, be passionate about what you talk about, because our people and our, and our youth, they really look up to Miss Navajo Nation.
GILGER: Yeah. So, what's next for you? You're a master's student at ASU, I'm sure this isn't the end of your story either.
REEVES-BEGAYE: Yeah, yeah, it's not. So, I will be going back to ASU. Well, I actually started my classes, I'm hoping to graduate in medical nutrition. That's what my concentration is in, and I have always wanted to work for my people, to serve for my people. With my medical nutrition background, I would like to become a registered dietitian and to really educate our people. And, I would like to take my service to the other 500 tribes within the United States, because there are times where I have traveled to very, very little reservations to where they barely have a clinic, and so that's where I see myself is to serve other tribal communities as well.
GILGER: All right. Well, best of luck to you. That is Amy N. Reeves-Begaye Miss Navajo Nation. Amy, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about all of this, I really appreciate it.
REEVES-BEGAYE: Of course, thank you for having me.
