From Rosebud to Miss Indian World, South Dakota’s shining star keeps rising

By Steve Young, for Pigeon605

She has been called a shining star, a young woman of passion praised for instilling a sense of independence and accomplishment among the youth on her native Rosebud Reservation.

And now, Tashina Red Hawk has reached the highest pinnacle of tribal royalty as well.

On April 30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the 18-year-old daughter of Shane and Noella Red Hawk was crowned Miss Indian World for 2022-23 at the prestigious Gathering of Nations event, the largest powwow in North America. She bested 22 other contestants from the U.S. and Canada for the title.

It’s just the latest honor among many for Anpetu Ya Onyiha ─ Tashina’s Lakota name, which means Honors the Day Woman. She twice has been named South Dakota High School Rodeo Queen and finished sixth in the most recent National High School Rodeo Queen competition. She is the first South Dakotan to win a National 4-H Youth in Action award for agriculture programming. She has earned a nomination to the Youth Engagement Advisory Council of America250, the nationwide commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 and received a President’s Volunteer Service Award signed by President Trump for seven years of handing out Christmas gifts on her reservation.

She even runs her own business, Tashina’s Coffee, in Mission to help her raise money for college.

Despite all that success, Tashina was a mess of emotions as the spotlights washed over her in the powwow arena at Gathering of Nations. With the lights dimmed and the sold-out crowd buzzing, her heart raced as they announced the second runner-up and then the first.

The contestants, age 18 to 26, had spent the previous days being judged in five categories: personal interview, talent presentation, public speaking, dance competition and an essay they submitted with their contest applications. Standing in the spotlight, Tashina knew that even though she had won trophies in two of the categories, best essay and personal interview, it might not be enough.

“Every goose bump, every hair on my arms, were standing up,” she recalled. “Every little molecule in my body was jumping. I really wanted to be first. I’m Lakota; I’m competitive at heart. But if not, I just wanted to leave them with the best version of me.”

When it came time to reveal the winner, Tashina thought she heard them announcing a girl from the Siksika Nation. But in fact, they were saying Sicangu ─ Tashina Red Hawk from the Sicangu Lakota Nation. In that electric moment, she joined a number of previous Miss Indian World winners from South Dakota, including Codi High Elk from Cheyenne River in 1984; Prairie Rose Little Sky, an Oglala, in 1988; and Lillian “Cepa” Sparks from Rosebud in 2000.

“When they said Sicangu,” Tashina recalled, “I’ll be honest; everything just exploded.”

Suddenly, a crown was going on her head and a sash across her shoulder. There would be gifts: flowers, a beautiful piece of tribal pottery and a luggage set. There was what she called “a substantial monetary gift” for winning the title, and monetary gifts for each of the two categories she won.

The Miss Indian World committee sent her and the committee president on a cruise to the Bahamas. Suddenly, the ranch girl raised among the cottonwoods and river bottoms near Rosebud’s Ring Thunder community had to get a passport. Before the cruise, she spent her first night ever alone in a hotel room.

Now, there will be more of that ahead in the weeks and months to come. Whether by Zoom or in person, Miss Indian World will travel North America and overseas, promoting her platforms of education and on cultural identity and preservation.

“My grandma told my dad, and my dad told me, that we need to promote education in both worlds,” Tashina said of her message. “She meant we need people strong in our cultural, traditional ways, but we also need our cultural, traditional youth to be strong in the outside world, the wasicu (white man) world of networking, communications, business and financing, so we can continue evolving and stay strong as a nation.”’

She believes she had an advantage in the competition because she grew up on a reservation. Her daily life was immersed in the practice of Lakota values, traditions, songs and stories. Many of the other contestants came from city backgrounds and didn’t appear to have daily access to their traditions, she said.

Tashina, on the other hand, grew up with horses and rodeo competitions and a strong Lakota extended family. She developed skills to manage her horses safely and to know her way around them through 4-H. She also forged a love for veterinary work through her volunteer efforts with the spay and neuter clinic at the reservation animal shelter.

That ability with horses shown through at the Gathering of Nations event when, separate from the Miss Indian World contest, she reclaimed her title in the Horse and Rider Regalia parade competition. Her father, Shane, defended his title in the same competition as well.

“I talked about that in the Miss Indian World competition,” Tashina said. “How growing up, I was taught how important and sacred our animals are and how they are to be treated and respected.”

When she returned from Albuquerque, Tashina said the first person she wanted to show the crown and sash to was her grandfather, Sidney Reddest, “my best friend and greatest support in the world.”

But first there was the long caravan from the Nebraska-South Dakota border north of Valentine. As the long line of vehicles rolled into Mission, Tashina was driven first by the elementary school, where every student came out, lined up with their teachers and cheered the new Miss Indian World as she passed by.

The same thing happened at the middle school and at Todd County High School, from which Tashina graduated in mid-May. Students and teachers stood and cheered at each stop along the way.

“Honestly, it made me cry,” Tashina said. “It really made me feel special. And I think it was good that they could see someone from their own community, who runs a business in their own community, who can go off and win this world title. That made me feel really good.”

The adoring crowds were repeated in Rosebud at the elementary school. And at the tribal headquarters, where President Scott Herman held up traffic on one of the main roads through town so he could present Tashina with a star quilt and tell her how proud the tribe is of her.

None of which surprised those who know Miss Indian World best. U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson has stood on the House floor in Washington and told his colleagues that Tashina “is going places. If there were more Tashina Red Hawks, we’d have a better nation.”

She is the Sicangu Lakota Nation’s shining star, said Ron Frederick, who was Tashina’s 4-H youth program adviser. “I just look at her as being … a role model for what kids on this reservation can do,” Frederick said. “She’s just a great example of, if you value education and have a positive can-do spirit, you can accomplish anything.”

Tashina has all that. Despite what promises to be a busy next year, she still intends to head off to South Dakota State University this fall to pursue her pre-veterinarian studies. She even has been invited this July to attend a major spay and neuter event in Florida to help control the cat overpopulation in that state. She is the only participant just out of high school to be invited.

And she couldn’t be more excited ─ about that opportunity and about the chance to promote the values and traditions of her native people, of all native peoples, to the world.

“I really plan to make as much of a difference as I can in the coming year,” she said. “I think the best way to do that, the best form of motivation for our tribal children, is through representation. I hope I can show them that they can do everything and anything they want. I mean, Miss World Indian lives right there among them, and see what she’s doing. I really do believe that they can do it too.”

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