Miss Navajo contestants go it alone
Donovan Quintero Navajo Times
Miss Navajo contestant Ann Marie Salt competes in the Miss Navajo butchering contest Wednesday in Window Rock.
WINDOW ROCK
With just five contestants vying for Miss Navajo, it was one girl, one sheep at the Miss Navajo Nation butchering competition Wednesday at the 69th annual Navajo Nation Fair.
Donovan Quintero Navajo Times
Miss Navajo contestant Alyson Jeri Shirley struggles to break the leg bone Wednesday in Window Rock.
“It was a different experience than last year, when we had a partner,” said Farrah Mailboy, 24, of Lukachukai, Ariz. “I think I did OK. I’m proud of myself.”
None of the contestants finished butchering by the one-hour deadline, although all got to the point of hanging up their carcasses. A team of men with saws and large knives swarmed in to finish the job.
McKeon Dempsey, Miss Navajo 2014-15, watched the five contestants — Alyson Jeri Shirley, Crystal Littleben, Ann Marie Salt, Mailboy and Starlene Tsinniginnie — with an aura of empathy.
“This was the hardest part of the competition for me,” Dempsey said. “It’s so intense. There’s so many generations of women there who have butchered all their lives.”
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow