Editor’s Note: The following story contained a factual error. Claudia McHenry did not hold the title of 2015 MCN Junior Miss. The headline also contained a factual error, Claudia McHenry did not finish as a runner up in the Miss Indian World pageant.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM. – Claudia McHenry (Mvskoke) recently competed in the 2024 Miss Indian World pageant. She embarked on her trip on April 21 and returned April 28. McHenry sat down with Mvskoke Media to discuss fundraising for the journey, and her experience competing.
This year marks the final year for McHenry competing in the competition. Coming back to the pageant McHenry was excited to see new and familiar faces from competitions in the past.
According to the Miss Indian World website, “Miss Indian World is the world’s largest and most prestigious cultural title for young Indigenous women (18-25 years old). As a Cultural Goodwill Ambassador, Miss Indian World represents Native American, Indigenous, and First Nations Tribal Cultures across the globe. This pageant is held every year at the Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, New Mexico in order to exchange ideas, traditions, and goodwill among the young women competing for the title of Miss Indian World,”
Before McHenry embarked on her trip to New Mexico, funding needed to be acquired for travel, lodging and admission fees. McHenry and other volunteers from the Okmulgee community hosted fundraisers to cover the trip fees. The fundraisers included Indian taco sales, wild onion dinners and breakfast sales. Each sale had help from McHenry’s family.
“It’s a community pushing me to get to that point, it’s all my family pouring their love to me and their support, the community wishing me well and praying for me. So that’s what the journey is, it’s showing who I am, how I’ve been raised and then putting the work into performing to the pageant,” McHenry said.
McHenry has competed in pageants for a while now and holds the 2021-2022 Miss Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as well as the 2018-2019 Miss Native American University of Central Oklahoma. Seeing other princesses contribute to their communities initially inspired McHenry to compete.
“I’ve seen the title holders and how they were greeted by the community, how they volunteered and how they just stopped and talked to the kids whenever they came up to them. That was just something that I held in high regard. Like it was just so amazing to me to see these representatives and how they hold themselves in the community and what they stand for,” McHenry said.
McHenry was inspired by many strong women in her life, including her great grandmother, grandmother, sister and mother. McHenry spoke about how her great grandmother and grandmother have always been generous women and never asked for anything in return. McHenry wants to pass down this legacy by helping others become providers and pillars for others to lean on. McHenry knows that her family’s love keeps their traditions alive.
“They do these things, not for any kind of consideration of any kind of title, they do it because they’re supposed to, because it’s family and you’re supposed to show your family love and teach your young ones,” McHenry said.
Pageants Through the Years
McHenry ran in the Miss Indian World 2023 and began preparing for it in July 2022. Although McHenry did not bring home a title that year, she was grateful for the experience. Her experience was positive enough that she knew she wanted to enter again this year.
Last year McHenry mainly focused on the talent portion of the competition. Unfortunately she was unable to spend as much time on other categories like writing essays and interviewing. This year McHenry gave more focus to each category. For the interview preparation she had her nieces read practice questions. For essay prep, McHenry worked with Dr. Lauren W. Yowelunh McLester-Davis (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin).
“I trusted her with that process, she actually won best essay in last year’s competition, so I was like if she won that she could definitely help me build and better express myself. That’s another reason that I do these things is to make networking connections like that. Had I never attended the pageant and had she never attended the pageant we would have never crossed paths and built this great relationship,” McHenry said. “I’m so grateful because you can do things on your own, but it’s also best to bring other people in to help you better yourself,” McHenry said.
Competing in pageants has taught McHenry a lot of values and lessons. It’s taught her how to work hard, speak well, connect with other people and manage time efficiently. These are skills that have helped her tremendously as a graduate student.
When asked about advice McHenry has for others on pageants, she said that she encourages anyone to enter. She wants others to know that pageantry competitions are not one dimensional, and that it is an experience that can help others in the future. For McHenry, she enjoys the spirit of competition, even if it means not winning.
“Even if you don’t win, there is always something that is going to be gained if you put yourself out there, especially in the pageantry world. You’re learning time management, you’re learning networking and learning social skills. You’re learning how to stand up for yourself and speak and find your voice. I just would encourage anyone to just go for it because there is just so much to gain. Even if there’s hundreds of things to gain, but even if you just gain one thing, you’re better than what you went in for,” McHenry said.
Few corrections: I never held the Jr. Miss MCN title, I have only ever been Miss MCN for 2021-2022 and the only other title I’ve held was for my university as the 2018-2019 Miss Native American University of Central Oklahoma, and I didn’t win runner up in the Miss Indian World Pageant. I appreciate this article and all the hardwork Mvskoke Media puts in to deliver news to our people! If I had won Miss Indian World I was looking forward to entering quarterly reports so that citizens could be aware of my pursuits, but alas I didn’t win 😅