Miss Indian America Pageant Winners

 “All American Indian Days was like a wake up call to me to be interested in who I am, as a person of this land,” she said. “I’ve made it my business all my life to look at all the things about myself as a person, and it work me up to using my own language.”

This summer, the MIA Collective spearheaded a tree-planting project at the Trail End Arboretum, planting 15 trees to pay tribute to the historic All American Indian Days, held from 1953-84, which included the Miss Indian America Pageant. Over many decades, Defender-Wilson has worked to bring awareness about her people to the nation. Today, her portrait is one of three featured in the largest mural in the United States, the Glass City River Wall in Toledo, Ohio. The Glass City River Wall is a community project, and no one in the Unted States has ever painted a mural of this size, deana harragarra waters, crowned Miss Indian America in 1975 and a member of the MIA Collective, said.

"In that regard, it is (similar to) what Sheridan accomplished in the 1950s with All American Indian Days and the Miss Indian America title," harragarra waters said. "Until then, no one in the United States had ever created an inter-racial project in human relations with Indian women leading the advocacy for unity and understanding among all peo­ples." 

  Defender-Wilson's life connects these two vital commw1ity projects transcending decades, she   continued. Throughout the decades, her commitment to the Sheridan community continued, and lives on in her membership in the 

 MIA Collective. harragarra waters first met Defender-Wilson, in 1975 at the 22nd Miss Indian America Pageant.   

"She was one of the first Indian people to serve as a judge, until then an all-white panel of judges selected the winner," harragarra waters said. "l will always remember her telling me how her Santee people were closely related to my Otoe people." 

The Glass City River Wall proj­ect will celebrate its completion this weekend in a live-streamed event in Toledo, with Defender­Wilson in attendance alongside Bear Dancers, Buffalo Dancers and other family members. 

"It's really rare to see Bear Dancers, even on the reserva­tion," said Christina Kasper, pro} etc. manager for the mural. "For me, the world is going to stop for a little bit when they are here." 

Defender-Wilson was chosen to be a part of the Glass City River Wall by the artist, Gabe Gault. 

"He was looking for reference photos in National Geographic, and came across a picture of her," Kasper said. 

The photo was taken by Rev. Don Doll, a Jesuit priest known for taking photos of Native Americans and others during his spiritual work over the last 50 years. He connected the artist with Defender-Wilson, and things took off from there. 

"You can see something in her face. 82,365 vehicles pass that spot a day. It is on l-75 and l just, every time I pass it, without fail, I look at her," Kasper said. 

The Glass City River Wall is the largest mural in the country by 100,000 square feet. When work began before the pandemic, rep­resentatives from Toledo's Arts Commission found a historic marker on site commemorating the fact that the location was once a Native American fortification. The mural grew from there. 

Not only was it important to remember the history on site, but Kasper said it was also important to depict the people in the mural as living members of society. 

"It was really important that those (in the) portraits have contemporary clothing on, and that all the models are live models. It was said to us very, very early on that people view Native Americans as a people of the past. But they also said, 'We live an1ongst you. We are a people of the past, present and future. We still contribute on a sizable level,"' Kasper said. 

The mural sits at a bend on the east bank of the Maumee River, where visitors can see a mile in each direction. 

"I say all the time that this project spoke to us. We were just the vessels to make it come true," Kasper said. 

There are three big grain silos at the end of the site selected for the mural, which were perfect for portraits, she explained. 

 "The overarching component here is, 'Whose story is told, and why?' We want to connect the community, but also to tell the story of this history. It is not ours to tell, but this was a way to tell that story," she said.  

That message of service has been passed onto Manning-Dick throughout her life, especially by her family. Her grandfather fought in six campaigns near the French border in World War I. Her father served in Pacific campaigns in World War II and helped protect the Native American code talkers during the war. Her husband served in the Vietnam War and eventually died from service-related injuries in 2010. Throughout her life, Manning-Dick has been surrounded by people who have made sacrifices for the country they love. And in her own way, she is carrying on the tradition. 

Following the death of her husband, Manning-Dick joined the Gold Star Wives of America, a national organization that exists to “preserve and enhance benefits to surviving U.S. military spouses and children; to help our members and their children face the future with courage and determination; and to honor the memory of our military spouses who made the ultimate sacrifice,” according to the organization’s website.

Manning-Dick has spent the last decade rising through the ranks of the organization and now finds herself on a national platform to advocate for the surviving spouses of veterans. 

She is currently serving as the organization’s president, has testified before U.S. Congress and recently had a chance to meet President Joseph Biden. She placed a memorial wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day this year and will do the same this coming Veteran’s Day.

It’s all been a wonderful journey, Manning-Dick said, but one that’s continually rooted in her passion to serve the families of veterans.

“I understand personally the sorrows and problems of service spouses,” Manning-Dick said. “I understand the things they need help with when a child loses a parent. 

 “I understand the things they need help with when a child loses a parent.  My main concern is to be available for spouses and to answer any questions or concerns they have. When they have no other place to turn, I want to be the person they turn to.”  

Manning-Dick said she has several priorities as president of the organization, including connecting military families and spouses with health benefits and insurance. The group is also working to prevent military suicides and is involved with the crafting of legislation that betters the lives of both veterans and their families, Manning-Dick said.

For example, Manning-Dick spoke before the Joint Senate and House Committees on Veteran Affairs in March 2022, and identified priorities on which her organization wanted the committees to focus. These included increasing dependency and indemnity  compensation — the flat monthly rate given to surviving spouses of veterans, which has not been increased since 1993, outside of minimal cost-of-living increases.

“Since 1993, surviving spouses of military veterans have found themselves falling further and further behind in meeting their financial obligations from month to month,” Manning-Dick said in her testimony given March 8, 2022. “Many surviving spouses of the World War II, Korea, and Vietnam eras are receiving only DIC; some receive DIC and minimum Social Security benefits. These DIC recipients struggle monthly with their budget of $1,437.66, juggling bills to meet the rising costs in housing, utilities, food, clothing and other personal living expenses. This scenario can lead too often to homelessness, a plight we do not wish to befall anyone, and least of all the surviving spouses of our military veterans.”

 In addition to the hard work Manning-Dick does fighting for military spouses and families, the leadership role also gives her a unique platform to honor veterans, as she did on Memorial Day in Arlington. That same day, she had a chance to meet with veterans and President Joseph Biden. She also attended the National Memorial Day Concert on the Capitol lawn, which was broadcast on PBS. 

 “It was an honor to meet some of our war veterans, including some World War II veterans,” Manning-Dick said. “They reminded me so much of my dad and uncles who served. As far as President Biden, I got to shake his hand and thank him. He was very kind and told me ‘Native American veterans have given so much for our nation.’ I really appreciated him saying that. I’m really proud of how our Native American veterans have served our country over the last 200 years. We are a very patriotic people.” While not everybody has  the kind of platform she has, Manning-Dick encouraged everyone to take time to celebrate the Veteran’s Day holiday, and to thank those who served, and those who were left behind.

“Veteran’s Day is not only happening in the Capitol, it is happening in every local community, including Sheridan,” Manning-Dick said. “I really encourage people to go out and celebrate and to honor and protect one another.”

Manning-Dick encourages anybody who lost a spouse who was killed or missing in action or died from service-related disabilities to reach out to the Gold Star Wives national office at 1-888-751-6350. For more information on the organization, see goldstarwives.org.

It’s his second year teaching at TRMS, and his second year coordinating a letter-writing program. Koch’s students — about 100 of them — show their appreciation for Sheridan County veterans by sending them handwritten letters.

For students, the letter-writing project is a way to show their appreciation for veterans in a way that allows them to reach hundreds in the community, even veterans they don’t know personally. TRMS eighth-grader Addie Perkins said by her count, students sent around 225 letters to local veterans this year — a significant increase from 2022, when students wrote around 180 letters.

“[Veterans] are really selfless people … they go out and know that they can die for everybody else, but we can keep our freedom because of them,” Perkins said.

Each student typically writes multiple letters, some as many as 30. In previous years, classes of students have dedicated significant efforts to planning the creation of the Tongue River Valley Veterans Memorial wall, which was funded entirely through charitable donations and is located on the lawn of TRMS. The wall was presented to the community at a ribbon cutting ceremony in June, and since it is now largely 

 completed, Koch said this year he wanted students to focus on making veterans feel appreciated in an individualized way. Koch said he gathered a list of names of veterans from Sheridan’s Veterans of Foreign Wars post, the American Legion, TRMS staff and his students, who were given the option to also write letters to their own friends or family members. Then, once completed, Koch sent them off to be delivered. 

Though the main goal of the letter writing project is to express appreciation for veterans, Koch said it also has the added benefit of providing students with an opportunity to practice reading, writing and life skills.

“Obviously there are some academic things that go along with this too. How to write a letter, how to address it, how to fold it,” Koch said. “So we're attaching some learning with that as well.”

Perkins and seventh-graders Kobbe Smith and Emellia Winfrey are three of those students.

Each of them strongly value those who serve, and said their beliefs helped influence the letters they wrote.

“They went out there knowing that they could die, but they're doing it for their country,” Winfrey said. “When you get a letter, it's 

 heartwarming … and it's kids writing to them, so it's even bigger.” 

Smith agreed in particular that receiving letters from children makes the project warmer and more special. 

“I'm grateful for them because some of them sacrifice their lives for people that they don't know. They don't always get all the gratitude they deserve,” Smith said. “So I think for them, it’s cool to get letters from kids.”

Students write several letters and make each of them unique so each veteran gets a special, individual thank-you. Perkins, Smith and Winfrey also said they each invited veterans to the TRMS Veterans Day assembly, which is held at the school every November. Veterans and the community are invited to attend to listen to the school choir sing, watch students read Patriot Pen essays and visit the Veterans Memorial Wall.

“I had a lot of veterans come up to me after the assembly last year, and then they went out and looked at the memorial … and they really appreciated it. Some had tears, so that makes it really special,” Koch said. “It’s hitting the way it's supposed to hit. It’s gratitude in the right spots.”