BISMARCK, N.D. (MCT) – Ponka-We Victors plans to inspire American Indian youths, who, she said, have largely lost their way.
And one day, Victors said, she will inspire Congress to improve the federally funded Indian health care system that serves a large number of the uninsured.
Victors, of Wichita, was crowned Miss Indian Nations in September. She plans to use the title to help promote her people.
Firsthand accounts of life in the Chuichu Village of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona and her travels to dozens more offered the motivation.
“Even though they were surrounded by their own people, they lost a sense of who they were,” said Victors, 25. “Therefore, they turned to drugs, alcohol and suicide.”
Motivation came from nursing an earache while waiting for a doctor in what would become an eight-hour emergency room visit.
Cries and screams from babies serenaded her through the wait.
Motivation came in 2005 as she sat in a congressional hearing watching lawmakers discuss cutting funding for Indian health care services.
“I saw the lack of representation of Native Americans there on the Hill, and they’re supposed to be making decisions for us?” Victors said of what she witnessed during a Morris K. Udall Foundation internship in Washington, D.C. “Most of them have never been on a reservation.”
She earned a biology degree from Newman University in 2005. She’s working on a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in policy at Wichita State University.
Although her English name is Jessica, she prefers the name Ponka-We, honoring her mother’s roots in the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.
The culture that she lives also draws on her father’s Tohono O’odham Nation roots.
“Monday through Friday, I’m a school student at WSU,” she said. “Friday to Monday, I’m in my traditional clothes, speaking my own language and eating my own food.”
Victors said she thinks young people are having trouble balancing their Indian and non-Indian culture. That’s why she’s pleased her title can help open doors to get them to listen.
“If I can just motivate a child out there, or somebody that’s really depressed to get them help, then I think … I did my job as a goodwill ambassador for all Indian nations,” she said.
Victors is the 14th Miss Indian Nations. The contest is coordinated by the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D. In addition to the title, Victors earned about $3,000 for her studies.
Victors, who has also won a competition from the National Congress of American Indians in 2001, said she is humbled and blessed to win two national titles to promote her people.
At the same time, Victors said, she’s proud to break stereotypes along the way.
“We’re educated,” she said of American Indian women. “We’ve got goals and plans … and a vision for our Indian people.”
Copyright (c) 2006, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
