Rachel Evangelisto – the first Indigenous woman ever named as Miss Minnesota – will compete in the Miss America pageant on Dec. 15 at the Mohegan Sun, which is owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut. 

“My two biggest goals for Miss America is to … have a blast and … make Turtle Island proud,” Evangelisto, Standing Rock Sioux, told ICT in an email. “It’s with immense gratitude that I get to shine a light on Indian Country as a whole and I really just want to make my people proud.”