Breaking Down Barriers
Gallup's Onawa Lacy named Miss New Mexico USA

Miss New Mexico USA Onawa Lacy laughs with her relatives during a gourd session Saturday at the Tsayatoh Chapter House. Her grandmother Ella Mae Yazzie is at right. [Photo by Julie Peña/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Onawa Lacy achieved more than just a personal goal when she won the title of Miss New Mexico USA on Oct. 29.

Lacy also became the first Native American woman and the first Gallup woman to win that title. Lacy, 23, a 2000 graduate of Gallup High School, will now go on to compete in the Miss USA pageant in the spring.

Lacy returned for a visit to her hometown this weekend. She was taking a break from her studies at the University of New Mexico, where she is scheduled to graduate in December with a bachelor's degree in English and a second bachelor's degree in American Indian Studies. Those degrees will also make her the first college graduate in her family.</sub>Valuable lessonUnlike the stereotypical American beauty pageant contestant who begins competing in pageants as a young girl, Lacy's first competition was just four years ago in Gallup.

It didn't go so great.

According to Lacy, she was one of the contestants in the 2001 Ceremonial Queen contest for Gallup's Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial. Lacy admits she didn't prepare herself for the competition, and she performed poorly, particularly in the formal interview.

"I had no idea what I was doing," Lacy admitted with laughter.

Although the loss hurt, Lacy said it taught her a valuable lesson: Never go into another competition unprepared.

A self-described quick learner, Lacy said she then immediately threw herself into another competition. After just a month of intensive preparation, Lacy won the competition and was crowned Miss Indian New Mexico 2001-2002 at the New Mexico State Fair.

Then in the spring of 2003, Lacy put Navajo women back on center stage when she competed against 33 other native women from the United States and Canada to capture the title of Miss Indian World 2003-2004 at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque.

"For that I actually prepared for a year," Lacy said. "I really prepared."

Although those two achievements would be remarkable for any young Native American woman in New Mexico, they were perhaps more remarkable for Lacy because she grew up without much knowledge and understanding about her own Navajo culture.Wake-up callThe daughter of former Gallup residents Rena and Rodney Lacy Sr., who now live in South America, Lacy is half-Navajo and half-Anglo. Her parents named her Onawa, a Lakota Sioux name her father found in a book of baby names that Lacy said means "Wide awake one to the joys and beauties of life."

Lacy grew up in Gallup with her Navajo grandmother, Ella Mae Yazzie, and three Anglo grandparents, Lucy and Albert Adair, her paternal grandmother and step-grandfather, and her paternal grandfather, the late Malcolm Lacy. Although Lacy is comfortable with who she is, she believes she didn't grow up with a solid understanding of traditional Navajo culture.

That realization, said Lacy, hit her one day like a wake-up call. She realized that if she didn't do something to learn about her own Navajo and Native American history and traditions, she would have no native culture to pass on to her children.

It was that realization, she explained, that caused her to throw herself into Native American culture pageants, to begin pursuing her bachelor's degree in American Indian Studies, and to begin preparing herself for law school and a future working on behalf of Native American or Native Hawaiian people.

According to Lacy, those first two pageant wins, particularly her year as Miss Indian World, dramatically impacted her life in a positive way. She traveled around the world, she said, and learned about numerous native cultures.

"That was an experience that really changed my life," she said. "I learned so much about myself and what I'm capable of." Some of the lessons she learned, she added, are to always be yourself, always believe in yourself, and to always do good for yourself and others.

Those two previous titles also gave Lacy the experience and confidence to think she might be able to take on the challenge of a mainstream pageant like Miss USA.Ready to 'glam-up'Armed with the tough lesson she learned through her loss in the Ceremonial pageant, Lacy said she began the hard work of preparing for the Miss New Mexico USA competition. Because she wasn't a typical contestant from a "hardcore pageant state" like Texas, where some young women actually hire professionals to coach them through the pageant system, Lacy knew she was pretty much on her own, other than the support and encouragement she received from family and friends. She videotaped all the national beauty pageants, and studied the tapes like they were homework for a university class. She even traveled to the East Coast to attend the three day Miss USA competition so she could understand the pressure of the event.

Lacy said she is looking forward to showcasing the beauty of Native American culture at the Miss USA venue. Both Miss USA and Miss America have historically had few Native American women contestants, she said, although Vanessa Shortbull did represent South Dakota in both pageants.

Lacy believes many people are curious to see how a young Navajo woman from rural New Mexico will fare against the veteran pageant contestants from those hardcore pageant states.

"I think everybody is kind of watching me," she admitted. "I think everyone wants to see what I'm capable of."

Although Lacy said she is most comfortable in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, she's ready to "glam-up" for the upcoming competition. It's all part of that lesson she learned four years ago in Gallup: Prepare, prepare, and then prepare some more.

— Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.