Description: Every summer, women and girls known as “royals” work to preserve their tribe’s identity by participating in beauty pageants on the Navajo Reservation. These pageants require demonstration of traditional dress, language, and skills.
“I wasn’t traditional when I was small, but I learned about my culture and how to respect it,” said Taya Tom, the thirteen-year-old princess of the Black Creek Gourd Society.
Location: New Mexico and Arizona
Year: 2017
The project was featured in New York Magazine's The Cut, Pageants of the Navajo Nation