Woman of the world?
Chinle woman taking a run at Miss Indian

Amid piles of shoeboxes Dante Gilbert fills out raffle ticket forms after purchasing them from Ronda Todachine at Foot Locker in the Rio West Mall Friday. Todachine is a contestant in the Miss Indian World pageant and has to sell raffle tickets as part of the contest. The number of tickets sold is used to break ties between contestants. Miss Indian World is crowned at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque in April. (Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent)

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — Although Ronda Todachine has never entered a pageant in her life, she thought she'd give Miss Indian World a try.

"My coworkers were teasing me about the pageant and the idea stuck with me," said the 23-year old Chinle resident. "I thought, 'Hey, why not?' I have as good a chance as anyone."

Miss Indian World is part of the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow, an annual four-day event held in Albuquerque that promotes Native cultures worldwide.

The competition includes public speaking, personal interviews, traditional presentations, and dance. Nearly 20 women competed in last year's pageant.

Todachine said she wanted to enter to challenge herself.

"I want to use my title (if I win) to help my community and voice my concerns," she said. "There's a lot of violence in Chinle."

Todachine studied elementary education for three years at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The transition from a small Navajo-reservation town to a large metropolitan city was hard, she said, but she met a lot of different people.

"I was asked a lot of crazy questions," Todachine said. "People asked if we lived in tee-pees. Someone asked 'Do you throw axes,' and I said, 'No, we've upgraded to chain saws.'"

But it was a humanities class that made Todachine appreciate the traditions her grandparents taught her.

The class was assigned to give a 10-minute presentation on goddesses and how they relate to Mother Earth.

Todachine gave a presentation on how her culture sees Mother Earth.

"I took the whole hour because there were so many questions," she said. "It made me appreciate my culture more."

Todachine has taken the past 18 months off to help her mother, a single parent of 10 children, and her grandparents.

In addition to substitute teaching in Chinle, she spends the weekends working two jobs in Gallup.

She works part-time at Kids Foot Locker and is also a bartender and waitress at El Dorado Restaurant and Lounge.

Todachine said that while she misses school, the experiences are good.

"When I go back to school, I'm ready for anything," she said.

Todachine spent most of her childhood with her grandparents "those are my best memories, it was fun," she said and when she does have free time, helps her grandfather with the family's alfalfa fields in Canyon De Chelly.

Her grandparents and aunt have been the largest influences and role models in her life, Todachine said.

"They told me that you've got to do everything yourself, you can't depend on anyone else," she said.

That independence has paid off.

Todachine said she has two traditional outfits but she will sew more herself for the pageant. She's enlisted the help of a friend to teach her dance for the contest, which requires each contestant to create original moves, and has sold more than the required $1 raffle tickets for the pageant. Points are accumulated from the sale and are used as a tie-breaker if necessary.

Even if she doesn't win her backup plan will put her back in school Todachine said she wanted to inspire younger girls, who may not have much self-confidence, to tackle challenges as well.

"If someone like me can do something like this, with so much support, (I hope this) inspires someone else to take the chance," she said.

Todachine will compete for Miss Indian World in April.

On the Net: http://www.gatheringofnations.com

— To contact reporter Pam Dempsey, call (505) 879-1707 or email pamelagdempsey@msn.com