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Jr. Miss & Miss Cherokee Leadership Competition
Application Deadline: July 11 at 6 PM
Junior Miss Cherokee serves as a goodwill ambassador and messenger promoting the government, history, language and culture of the Cherokee Nation. Junior Miss Cherokee is a role model and is expected to display the best qualities of Cherokee youth during her reign. She attends various events throughout the Cherokee Nation including community meetings, parades and school functions promoting her message. From time to time she may also attend state and national events.
Miss Cherokee serves as a goodwill ambassador and messenger promoting the government, history, language and culture of the Cherokee Nation. She is a role model and is expected to display the best qualities of a young Cherokee woman during her reign. Miss Cherokee attends various events throughout the Cherokee Nation including community meetings, parades and school functions promoting her message. At times she may also attend state and national events. Miss Cherokee, as well as the first and second runners-up, receive a college scholarship.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
6 PM
Cornerstone Fellowship
718 Pendleton St
Tahlequah, OK 74464
Jr. Miss Cherokee Leadership Competition
Application Deadline: July 11 at 6 PM
Junior Miss Cherokee serves as a goodwill ambassador and messenger promoting the government, history, language and culture of the Cherokee Nation. Junior Miss Cherokee is a role model and is expected to display the best qualities of Cherokee youth during her reign. She attends various events throughout the Cherokee Nation including community meetings, parades and school functions promoting her message. From time to time she may also attend state and national events.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
6 PM
Cornerstone Fellowship
718 Pendleton St
Tahlequah, OK 74464
Little Cherokee Ambassador Competition
Application Deadline: August 8 at 6 PM
The overall goal of our Little Cherokee Ambassadors is to begin instilling leadership skills that will help them become leaders for our nation. Participating in the Little Cherokee Ambassador event is intended to inspire our youth to achieve their dreams. They are also encouraged to lead by example and become self-sufficient, gain knowledge of their Cherokee heritage and begin to recognize their history, culture and language.
Friday, August 16, 2024
6:30 PM
Cornerstone Fellowship
718 Pendleton St
Tahlequah, OK 74464
Miss Cherokee 2023 – 2024
Keeleigh Sanders
Miss Cherokee serves as a goodwill ambassador and messenger promoting the government, history, language and culture of the Cherokee Nation. She is a role model and is expected to display the best qualities of a young Cherokee woman during her reign. Miss Cherokee attends various events throughout the Cherokee Nation including community meetings, parades and school functions promoting her message.
Keeleigh Sanders is the 22-year-old daughter of Troy and Melissa Sanders. She is the granddaughter of Fred and Ida Stopp and the granddaughter of the late Renda Stopp and the late Jim Johnson and the late Mose and Mary Sanders. Her Cherokee name is ᎡᏥᏲ (E-Tsi-Ni) and she is part of the Long Hair Clan. She is a senior at Northeastern State University where she majors in social work-child welfare; interns at Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare in Tahlequah, Oklahoma; and has plans to become a social worker.
Keeleigh’s platform is about bringing awareness to Indian Child Welfare and to encouraging others to learn more about Indian Child Welfare. She wants to help others understand what they can do to help these children; and the importance of keeping Native children within their tribe in order to help them learn more about their own culture and history. Indian Child Welfare helps children and families thrive.
Keeleigh enjoys watching stickball, playing slow-pitch softball, making cornbead necklaces, beading jewelry and spending time with family.
Jr. Miss CHerokee 2023 – 2024
Addison Rouse
The Junior Miss Cherokee Leadership Competition promotes leadership and culture among Cherokee youth. Jr. Miss Cherokee is a young lady between the ages of 13 and 18 who best exemplifies the attributes of leadership, including personal integrity, communication skills and respectfulness. Junior Miss Cherokee is a role model and is expected to display the best qualities of Cherokee youth during her reign. She attends various events throughout the Cherokee Nation including community meetings, parades and school functions promoting her message.
Addison Rouse is the 17-year-old daughter of Dr. Brant and Jennifer Rouse. She is the maternal granddaughter of Judy and Woodrow Wilson Fargo, and the paternal granddaughter of Brenda and Louie Rouse. Addison is a junior at Fort Gibson High School where she is actively involved in the Tiger Theatre Company, speech and debate, choir, varsity swim, environmental protection club, NHS and more.
Addison has been studying opera for the past two years and has ambitions of pursuing vocal performance or law in the future. Addison promotes Cherokee language, culture, and history and serves as a role model for Cherokee youth, as well as a goodwill ambassador for the Cherokee Nation. Addison enjoys singing Cherokee hymns, storytelling, and basket-weaving.
Her platform as Jr. Miss Cherokee is using the impact of Cherokee song to bring a deeper understanding of Cherokee culture, past and present. Exposure to our language, arts, and values leads to respect and appreciation. Addison is ecstatic to be given the opportunity to represent the Cherokee Nation as a goodwill ambassador to promote Cherokee language, values, history, and culture — past and present — to ultimately serve her people.
Little Cherokee Ambassadors 2023 – 2024
Camille Teehee, Skye Rodwell, Ryan Altaffer & Grace Thomas
The overall goal of our Little Cherokee Ambassadors is to begin instilling leadership skills that will help them eventually become leaders for our nation. Participating in the Little Cherokee Ambassador event is intended to inspire our youth to achieve their dreams. They are also encouraged to “Lead by Example” and become self-sufficient as well as gaining knowledge of their Cherokee heritage.
Camille Teehee is five years old and has two sisters as well as one brother. She is a kanuchi maker. She gathers hickory nuts, then cracks and pounds them. She dances at powwows with her sister. She enjoys doing yoga and ballerina moves. She plays T-ball, loves learning Cherokee from her papaw and wants to be a doctor.
Skye Rodwell is nine years old and is in the fourth grade. Skye is from the Anigilohi (Long Hair Clan). She competes in her school’s Cherokee Challenge Bowl and Cherokee Language Bowl; and sings in her school’s Cherokee choir. Skye plays and competes in many traditional games tournaments: Chunkey, blowgun, Stickball shootout and marbles. She also enjoys playing soccer and basketball.
Ryan Altaffer is nine years old and is in the fourth grade. He is a member of his school’s gifted and talented class, Cherokee class, Cherokee choir, Cherokee bowl, basketball, cross country and track teams. He is a member of a soccer league, Kuk Sool Won, community sports league, playing flag football, basketball and baseball. He attends Cornerstone Fellowship and participates in the Wings 5K runs. Ryan enjoys reading, playing with his friends, all outdoor activities — and most of all loves God and his family.
Grace Thomas is 11 years old and is in the sixth grade. She loves the arts and spending time with her two dogs. Along with learning Cherokee, Grace enjoys singing, dancing, fencing and baking. She always has a painting she’s working on. Grace often incorporates her use of the Cherokee language into her art.
