Keely Welch, Jana West bring family teachings to Miss Western Navajo crowns

Naa’ahóóhai | 58th Annual Western Navajo Fair

TUBA CITY

Keely Welch learned Navajo by listening to her mother and grandmother talk to each other and at family gatherings where aunties, uncles and cousins carried on conversations in the kitchen. As she understood more, her cousins began turning to her to ask what the adults were saying.

Jana West carries a different reminder of home. She wears a ‘ayaayááh dah si’ání that belonged to her late great-grandmother, Lola Begay, the woman who kept encouraging her to enter pageants even when West was not sure she wanted to compete.

Welch, of Tonalea, Arizona, holds the 2026-27 Miss Western Navajo title. West, a 17-year-old Tuba City High School senior, holds the Miss Western Navajo Teen title, which was added this year.

West said Begay, who was from Rocky Ridge, Arizona, encouraged her for years to try pageantry. West had little interest at first but eventually applied.

“I didn’t really want to do it, but something told me just to do it and I did,” West said.

She entered knowing she wanted to do her best regardless of the outcome and thinking about what her great-grandmother would have wanted for her.

West wears the ‘ayaayááh dah si’ání most of the time and also has one of her great-grandmother’s yootsah.

“It’s heavy,” West said of the ‘ayaayááh dah si’ání. “I wear it all the time because it reminds me of my grandma.”

West is Táchii’nii, born for Tótsohnii. Her maternal grandfather is Tsi’naajinii and her paternal grandfather is ‘Áshįįhí. Her parents are Malcolm and Jenice West.

Jana West said she wants to make the new teen title more visible and encourage younger girls to consider opportunities beyond school pageants. She also wants to work with Welch on workshops for children on Navajo language and public speaking, along with events connected to mental health, diabetes, running and basketball.

West played basketball for the Tuba City Lady Warriors when they won the 2026 AIA Girls Copper Division State Championship and is now running cross-country during her senior year. She is also taking AP classes while preparing for college and scholarship opportunities.

“I haven’t really decided but the top one priority is to become a doctor,” West said. “I don’t know what field yet but just to become a doctor.”

Welch has been competing in pageants since she was about 5, but after holding a title at Tuba City High School, she thought she had reached the end of that part of her life. Her uncle Ray Yazzie encouraged her to continue and pushed her to speak Navajo.

“He really, really pushed me to speak in Navajo,” Welch said. “He pushed me to be the person that I could be.”

Welch is Yé’ii Dine’é Táchii’nii, born for Béésh Bich’ahii. Her maternal grandfather is Kinłichíi’nii and her paternal grandfathers are Irish and Scottish.

Her mother, Sharon Welch, also pushed her to speak Navajo and continue her education. Keely Welch said her mother survived breast cancer, a stroke and cardiomyopathy before returning to school, attending Diné College and Grand Canyon University and earning a master’s degree.

Her mother often reminded her of t’áá hwó ájít’éego t’éiyá and told her that no one else could do the work for her.

Welch said Navajo remains part of her everyday life and that she speaks it with her mother and grandmother, including on trips to places such as Flagstaff. She even speaks Navajo to her cat, Cheddar Benally Welch, who started out as Cheeto before her mother changed the name to Cheddar. Her grandmother began calling him Cheddar Box, and Welch added Navajo names of her own, including one tied to his habit of scratching.

Welch also spends much of her free time reading, particularly thrillers, mysteries and suspense.

“I love to read books,” Welch said.

Welch graduated from Tuba City High School in May and is a 2026 Chief Manuelito Scholarship recipient who also received the Navajo Nation Seal of Bilingual Proficiency. She is now an online student at Paradise Valley Community College pursuing an Associate of Applied Science in Administration of Justice Studies.

Welch plans to become a Navajo Nation police officer and eventually a homicide detective. She recalled people trying to steal the family’s vehicles and cattle and said those experiences made her think about protecting herself, her family and others who could not protect themselves.

“When I grow up, I’m going to do something that helps me defend myself and defend others who can’t defend themselves and who can’t get justice for themselves,” Welch said.

Her Miss Western Navajo platform, “Community Helping Community,” includes plans to provide instruction on situational awareness, emergency preparedness, natural disaster preparedness and self-defense for women and men. Welch also tied her interest in law enforcement to missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“I want to bring justice to those families, and I want to bring closure, and I want to do my best,” Welch said.

She once questioned whether she could hold a Navajo pageant title because some people judged whether she was Navajo by her appearance.

“Listen to your elders, go to your grandma, go to your grandpa, your nálí, go to all of them and ask for help because you’re definitely going to need them when you’re on your journey,” she added.

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