OKMULGEE, Okla. Newly crowned 2025-2026 Miss Muscogee (Creek) Nation Aholoce Deere and Junior Miss Mia Powell have begun their year-long Mvskoke ambassadorships. For Deere and Powell, this year marks a special competition that created community and friendships among the contestants. Mvskoke Media sat down with the new Royalty who spoke about why they entered the pagenet, their contest journeys, and what they hope to bring to their new titles.
Q: Is this your first time participating in this competition?
Powell: My third year.
Deere: My second year.
Q: How was your journey of getting yourself prepared for the contest?
Powell: It was very fun, and it was sort of frustrating at the same time. Because I was trying to finish up my school and just trying to graduate. But I was also trying to focus on the pageant and making sure I was practicing my talent and making sure I was confident in my introduction. I think it was fun but also it was very difficult at the same time. I’m also glad the pageant was in the summer, that way I have more time to focus on it.
Deere: I’d say it was a very enjoyable experience, though confident in my ability to represent myself in the most authentic way possible. There were a few tweaks that I had to make to my introduction, giving it my grammatical structure and well abiding by the rules that are set forward by the Nation for our talent and our self presentation. I’m glad to say that I did win an award for self presentation on stage.
Q: What did you enjoy most about it?
Powell: One thing I really enjoyed most about it was being able to run and compete with one of my best friends. We were side by side throughout this whole journey. I actually kind of convinced her to be able to run with me so we’d be able to do this together, but also it was being crowned by our past Junior Miss MCN Olivia Beaver, who is one of my closest friends and one of my best friends. I think it was just the whole journey, just being able to go through this whole entire thing, to getting the crown, with my best friends and that is what I really enjoyed the most.
Deere: The thing I enjoyed most was our fellow contestants in the community that we created alongside each other for the past three months preparing for the pageant.
Q: What made you decide to run for this role?
Powell: It was really the support for my community, but also I really wanted to show that I was a good ambassador for the nation, but also for my own character to show that I could be able to do this. But just the community support, everybody was encouraging me to run just saying, “run again, run again, you got this” and I really think that’s really what made because I was like “okay, they believe in me so I can do this” and I did do it, because I’m a princess.
Deere: What made me decide to run for this role was authentic representation of cultural and traditional aspects in my way of life for those who are also in the same way of life.
Q: What was your favorite category?
Powell: My favorite category that I did was my cultural presentation. I really enjoyed my cultural presentation because the entire thing was in the Mvskoke Creek language and I really think that so many people enjoyed it. But I myself enjoyed it because it gave me something new to learn and it gave me sort of a way to make sure that I was on track, making sure that I was practicing it and making sure I was ready to compete in front of everybody.
Deere: My favorite category to compete with was my introduction and dress presentation. I believe first impressions are a really good aspect of being princesses because they will not see us again. So the first impression is always the best. I was very honored to display our language in the way that I did.
Q: What are you most excited for this year?
Powell: I’m most excited to be able to represent my Nation, but also myself. I’m really just excited to meet all the new faces, new royalty, just watching everybody, just meeting so many new people is really what I’m most excited for stepping into this position.
Deere: I’m really excited to be given this opportunity to talk to as many princesses as we do. To teach those who want to learn and learn from those who want to teach.
Q: Since having this new royalty title, what do you hope this can bring to you?
Powell: Well I hope this brings to me as a person is definitely building up my character. I think that stepping into this role is going to teach me to be more formal, teach me better ways to talk, but also how I handle myself in public and in situations. I really hope that it helps build up my character but I also want to use my platform, which is suicide awareness, to bring help to others, to give others the help that they need, and to give them the resources that they need.
Deere: Though alongside knowledge and gaining more awareness of those in my community, I hope to utilize it to spread awareness for my platform, which is cultural immersion. Cultural immersion is very important for those in our community to learn and grow as a people. Learning about our culture and traditions that will bring our culture through and past my reign as Miss Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
