Tribute to All-American Indian Days to be Held

Miss Indian America XI Michele Portwood & Miss Indian American XXII deana harragarra visiting the Kendrick Park Arboretum. (Judy Slack photo)

On Friday, July 29, beginning at 10 a.m., the public is invited to the Kendrick Park Arboretum to a Tribute to History and Hope, The Miss Indian America Collective’s dedication of trees.

Judy Slack, Sheridan area historian, is the local liaison, and a member of the Miss Indian America Collective. She said that the trees will serve as a living tribute to all those who helped make All American Indian Days (AAID), a success from 1953-84. The main goal of AAID was to eradicate discrimination against the Native Americans, and these trees are a tribute to Sheridan and the Indian Community.

In February, Michele Portwood, Miss Indian America XI, and deana harragarra (it is lower case) visited the Arboretum to to scope out the view and the size of the area for the tree project.

In an article by deana harragarra, Miss Indian American XXII, that appeared in a rodeo magazine, she said that the tribute allows participants to be a part of the continuing Sheridan WYO Rodeo story which begun in July 1951 which grew into “an interracial project in human relations,” a message as relative today as it was seventy years ago. “May your participation in this dedication add to the story of All American Indian Days, The Miss Indian America Pageant, and Sheridan, Wyoming. We hope to see everyone on Friday, July 29, 2022, beginning at 10:00 am until 11:00 am at the Kendrick Park Arboretum in Sheridan, Wyoming,” harragarra said.

In June, before the trees were planted, the ground at the Kendrick Park Arboretum was smudged and a prayer was offered for this area and for the trees. “These trees are now the children of Mother Earth and represent our thankfulness to the people of Sheridan, the Crow, the Northern Cheyenne, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho for believing the idea of making this part of their world better was truly worth the effort,” harragarra stated.

During All-American Indian Days, from 1953-1984, tribes from across the country gathered in Sheridan. The Miss Indian America Collective’s tribute began in July 1951 when two of the top three Sheridan Rodeo Queen finalists were young Crow women. Lucy Yellowmule was the first Indian woman to be elected as Sheridan’s Rodeo Queen, but in spite of that there was an anti-Indian sentiment in Sheridan. One of the first local townspeople to recognize the need for corrective action was Howard Sinclair, also known as ‘Neck-Yoke Jones.’

“Do you see that tree?” Donald Deernose, one of the founders of AAID, asks, pointing to a tree in his front yard in Crow Country. “That is where All American Days and Miss Indian America got started,” harragarra said in the article.

Together with the Sheridan Parks Department, a diverse species of trees were selected to add to the existing arboretum. More trees and park benches may be added as funding allows.