Miss Indigenous Pageant

Ivy Davis staff writer

University of Oregon senior Angela Noah of the Apache tribe was crowned the university’s Miss Indigenous in 2020. She has held this position since then and will remain crowned until this spring, when they plan to pass along their title to another indigenous woman at the third annual UO Miss and, recently added, Mr. Indigenous Royalty Court. Noah explained that pageants have been a significant aspect of their life due to growing up with tribal pageantry organized by her family members. They clarify that indigenous pageants are much different from standardized beauty pageants, such as Miss America. American pageants are predominantly white and contestants are judged based on physical appearance, while indigenous pageants are more culturally focused: “They have categories where you’re judged based on how well you know your language, how well you can speak it, if you’re culturally informed and if you know the stories told within your tribe.”

When asked to define the message that Noah’s community is trying to convey, she explained that her community has been greatly affected by the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW). They say that many people in their community know someone who was a part of the MMIW and that it is a very sensitive and personal topic. Noah expressed that people typically only want to start paying attention to indigenous women after they’re gone. A goal of hers is to amplify indigenous women’s voices, in order to engage people with indigenous communities and raise awareness of MMIW. One way that Noah motivates people to pay indigenous women greater attention is through the display of her culture throughout campus. Noah said, “I will wear my camp dress and moccasins and I’ll walk into a room and I can immediately see everyone perk up, and I like that because I feel like they feel the power of my people and they know that an Apache woman is here and present.” This powerful message has brought more attention to her cause and community.

Noah and their peers at the university’s Miss Indigenous Pageant have organized many functions to uplift native voices. However, they consider one of the most impactful events to be the protest against the pioneer statues that stood on the U of O campus three years ago. The thirteen-foot-tall pioneer statue known as “the father” was located in front of Johnson Hall and “the mother” statue was located behind that building. The pioneer father statue depicted a man holding a whip in his right hand. This statue was built with the intention of commemorating the land that was found and the history of how the campus and Eugene as a whole came to be. Noah said, “It was completely whitewashing and disregarding indigenous history.” This statue failed to acknowledge the original founders of the land, which in this case was the Kalapuya tribe.

There were protests between classes to demand that the statues be taken down. Noah recalls that she was getting ready to attend a riot protesting the statues when she was notified that the statues had been knocked off of their pedestals. The father pioneer had been chained up and dragged up the steps to the entrance of Johnson Hall. This was deliberately done to convey a message to the university that they shouldn’t have ignored the native students’ protests. These influential actions have significantly improved the native American experience on the university campus.