Madison Whitekiller | |
---|---|
Alma mater | Verdigris High School, Claremore, Oklahoma |
Occupation(s) | Student, Northeastern State University |
Title | Miss Cherokee 2017-18 |
Madison Whitekiller is an American of Native ancestry who was crowned the 2017-18 Miss Cherokee on August 26, 2017. [1] [2] She will represent the Cherokee Nation as a goodwill ambassador to promote the history, language, and culture of the Cherokee tribe for the next year. [1] [2]
She competed against six other young women for the Miss Cherokee crown [1] in a competition held each year in conjunction with the Cherokee National Holiday. [3] The competition judges contestants on their use of the Cherokee language, their cultural and platform presentations, and their responses to impromptu questions. [1] For her cultural presentation during the competition, Whitekiller focused on empowering Cherokee women through the traditional Cherokee story of why the corn husk doll has no face. [1]
Whitekiller, from Claremore, Oklahoma, [1] [2] [3] is a student at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. [1] She previously served as Junior Miss Cherokee 2015–16. [1] [2] [3]
A beauty pageant is a competition traditionally focused on judging and ranking the contestants' physical attributes. Pageants have now moved towards including inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, talent, character, and charitable involvement, through private interviews with judges and answers to public on-stage questions. Pageant titles are subdivided into Miss, Mrs. or Ms., and Teen – to clearly identify the difference between pageant divisions.
Claremore is a city in and the county seat of Rogers County in Green Country, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,580 at the 2020 census, a 5.4 percent increase over the figure of 18,581 recorded in 2010. Located in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is home of Rogers State University and is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering a judge's question onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – demonstrated physical fitness onstage dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – modeling evening-wear onstage.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was a Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school, she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s, Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s, she was employed as a social worker, focusing mainly on children's issues.
Distinguished Young Women, formerly known as America's Junior Miss, is a national non-profit organization that provides scholarship opportunities to high school senior girls. Depending on the schedule of the various state and local programs, young women are eligible during the summer preceding their senior year in high school. This program is designed to provide young women with the opportunity and support needed to succeed before, during, and after attending college. In addition, through the Distinguished Young Women Life Skills program, which includes workshops and online resources, participants can learn skills like interviewing, public speaking, self-confidence building and much more. Since its creation in 1958, over 700,000 young ladies have participated in competitions spanning the United States. Participants compete in the categories of Interview (25%), Scholastics (25%), Talent (20%), Fitness (15%), and Self-Expression (15%). Each state hosts a state program in which the chosen representative advances to the national program, held in the program's birthplace of Mobile, Alabama. Each year the Distinguished Young Women program gives out over $1 billion in scholarships. The Distinguished Young Women program is free to enter.
The Cherokee Nation, formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. As of 2023, over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
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The Cherokee National Holiday is an annual event held each Labor Day weekend in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The event celebrates the September 6, 1839 signing of the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears Indian removal ended.
Norma Des Cygne Smallwood was the winner of the Miss America 1926 pageant.
The Miss Wisconsin's Teen competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of Wisconsin in the Miss America's Teen pageant. The pageant is held each June in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
For the state pageant affiliated with Miss Teen USA, see Miss Oklahoma Teen USA
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Madison Taylor Kocian is an American retired artistic gymnast. On the uneven bars, she is one of four 2015 World co-champions and the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and she was a member of the first-place American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where she was a member of its women's gymnastics team. She helped the UCLA Bruins win the 2018 NCAA Championships.
Nina Davuluri is an American public speaker, advocate, and beauty queen who hosts the reality show Made in America on Zee TV America from Manhattan.
Georgia Lynn Canady is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was crowned Miss Oklahoma's Outstanding Teen 2009 and Miss Oklahoma 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015 and placed in the Top 10.
Meagan Elise Fuller is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Attleboro, Massachusetts, who was named Massachusetts' Junior Miss 2010 and crowned Miss Massachusetts 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015.
Marjana Chowdhury is a Bangladeshi beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned Miss Grand Bangladesh 2021 and represented Bangladesh at Miss Grand International. She also won Miss Alaska World 2019, competed in Miss World America 2019, and reached the top 25, won Miss Bangladesh 2017, and represented Bangladesh at Miss Asia Pacific International 2018. She previously won the 2016 Miss Bangladesh USA competition.
Miss USA 2020 was the 69th Miss USA pageant. It was held at the Exhibition Centre and the Soundstage at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 9, 2020. Akbar Gbaja-Biamila and Allie LaForce served as hosts, while Cheslie Kryst and Christian Murphy served as backstage commentators, and Haley Reinhart performed. Cheslie Kryst of North Carolina crowned Asya Branch of Mississippi as her successor at the end of the event. Branch is the second consecutive African American to win the title, and the fourth one in five years. This is Mississippi's first win at the Miss USA pageant. Branch represented the United States at the Miss Universe 2020 pageant and placed in the Top 21.
Miss Cherokee is an annual cultural leadership title awarded by the Cherokee Nation to a young woman of Cherokee descent. The role of Miss Cherokee includes acting as an ambassador for the Cherokee Nation, representing the tribe at various cultural, educational, and governmental events. The Miss Cherokee title is part of a larger effort to promote Cherokee culture, leadership, and community engagement among young tribal members.