Founder: Miss Utah Navajo pageant was way to regain pride
Past holders of the Miss Utah Navajo crown listen as Clyde Benally, founder of the pageant, tells what motivated him to stage a pageant for Utah Navajos. The pageant dates to 1979. (Times photo - Cindy Yurth)
Past holders of the Miss Utah Navajo crown listen as Clyde Benally, founder of the pageant, tells what motivated him to stage a pageant for Utah Navajos. The pageant dates to 1979. (Times photo – Cindy Yurth)
MONTEZUMA CREEK, Utah – You might say the Miss Utah Navajo pageant started with a 7th-grade history textbook.
Growing up in the isolated Utah section of the reservation, where they rarely saw a bilagáana, it had never occurred to Clyde Benally to be embarrassed about his culture. He strove hard to be a good, balanced person in the Navajo way, and his grandmother always told him there was a special pride in being a Utah Navajo, because they never surrendered to the Long Walk.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow