50 Years Ago: Miss Indian America makes the front page

Back in the 1960s, the Navajo Times had a thing for Sarah Ann Johnson, the Piñon, Arizona, native who in 1967 was selected to be Miss Indian America.

At least one story and sometimes two or three would be printed about her during her reign, many of them on the front page. Oftentimes the stories were about her travels on behalf of tribes throughout the country.

Or maybe it was because the Miss Indian organization had a good press office and the paper thought her photo on the front page would sell papers. But the articles did get good play, as did this one from about 50 years ago, headlined on the front page “Indian Beauty Touring in the East.”

“Sarah Ann Johnson of Piñon, Az. – who for almost a year has been touring around the United States – representing all Indian tribes as the ultimate in Indian beauty, was in New York this week,” the article began.

The highlight of that visit was her appearance on The Tonight Show where she was interviewed as a spokeswoman for Native American people. She went there to comment on a documentary that had aired on CBS titled “The Forgotten American.” Now The Tonight show in those days didn’t promote shows on another network – it was on NBC – but the Times pointed out that her visit was arranged by the chairman of the board for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, H.L. Carson, who just happened to be the father of Johnny Carson, the host of the show. But it turned out that Johnny Carson wasn’t hosting that night.

He was on vacation so Johnson was interviewed by the substitute host, Joe Garagiola, who was a sports announcer for the network. This may have been better since it appeared that Garagiola had watched the CBS documentary and had some thoughts on the subject, agreeing that Native Americans did not get credit for what they had done on behalf of the country. Johnson pointed out that a higher percentage of Native Americans than other ethnic groups served in the military during World War II and the Korean War, and many died on the battlefield.

There was no mention during the segment about the Navajo Code Talkers since it was a few months before the program was declassified by the military and their existence made public. Johnson was scheduled to spend a good part of April and May flying back and forth from the western states to the East as part of the promotion around the CBS program.

Because of this, CBS reportedly was paying part of her travel expenses. But during the tour, reported the Times, Johnson called a friend, Marlene Gleason, who lived in Window Rock and was a classmate when the two went to Window Rock High School. Before being selected as Miss Indian America, Johnson, 26, had spent a year as Miss Navajo.

“Marlene said Sarah had lost about 20 pounds since she was crowned Miss Navajo almost two years ago, adding that the weight loss was due to her ‘rigorous travel schedule rather than not eating,’” the Times reported. Johnson had competed against representatives from 40 other tribes to win the Miss Indian competition.

Dick Hardwick, the editor of the Times, said that week that you can’t help but pity the many visitors to the Navajo Reservation who believe anything someone tells them about the Navajos.

He gave the following story as an example. A visitor to the reservation was planning to spend the night at the Window Rock Lodge and when he entered his room, he saw a floor mat with “TAM HTAB” on it. He called the lobby and asked the clerk what that meant and he was told that meant “welcome” in Navajo. But Hardwick said the following morning as he was leaving, he realized the clerk had been playing a joke on him. As he headed to the door, he saw that it read from this side “BATH MAT.”

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