Last weekend, the current reigning Miss International Two Spirit – Spirit Wildcat (Shoshone/Bannock), made an appearance at the 5th Annual BAAITS Two Spirit Powwow in San Francisco, California. I caught up with her for a quick interview:
Please introduce yourself!
Good morning, Afternoon, Evening.
My name is Spirit Wildcat, I'm the current reigning Miss International Two-Spirit XVII. I am from Fort Hall, Idaho and an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. My parents are Larry & Sonya Wadsworth both of Fort Hall, Idaho.
How did you get started in the Pageant world?
How I got started was when my mother asked if I would like to run for the title of Mr. Indian Day Brave back in 1998. It was very exciting to be able to get up in front of the native community and speak, during that time in my life I was a grass dancer and when the time came for the announcement of the winners many of the elders did express to my mother that they had no doubts that I would be picked for the title. That was my first ever title I won.
After that in secret I decided to run for the title of Miss Pridaho #5 during Pocatello, Idaho's Gay Pride and won, my first thoughts that went threw my head when they announced my name as the winner was, “oh snaps what did I get myself into” . Representing the LGBT community was awesome it was my chance to fully engage myself into the Pocatello, Idaho., gay community. The next title that I tried out for was Miss Gay Idaho, I ran two years in a row and only walked away with just Miss Congeniality.
After that I took time away from the pageant world to and decided to be happy with things in my life but after attending the Montana Two-Spirit Society Gathering in 2014 I walked away with Montana's first Miss Montana Two-Spirit title, then next was Miss International Two-Spirit 2016.
Why do you think its important to have a, “Miss International Two Spirit” , or any other Two Spirit title?
Having the, “Miss International Two-Spirit” , title carries great importance for our Two-Spirit people. We may be still in our early stages of having the title holders fully emerge themselves into the powwow circle but with time and strong hearts our Two-Spirit community will not have fear attending any powwow and dancing to the different styles their hearts are in. And with any Two-Spirit title holders, we are that first step to open the doors for our Two-Spirit people.
What kind of experiences have you had so far and what are you future plans for the rest of your reign?
All of my experiences have been positive, nothing negative, during powwows the little princesses come up to me and have many questions, I am happy to answer but one thing is, I become an aunty to these little princesses, to other titles holders I become an older sister but in my case, Aunty Spirit.
For the rest of my reign I hope to attend more events, such as Gathering of Nations Powwow, a few college and school powwows and more Two-Spirit gatherings and prides events.
Please list 5 things people don't know about you!
– I enjoy eating pizza everyday.
– On weekends I just relax and become a hermit in my room.
– When my reign ends, I plan on taking a year off from dancing.
– I enjoy talking with elders and hearing their stories.
– I'm a big day dreamer.
You can find Spirit Wildcat on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/spirit.wildcat
Corrections Needed
says:Dear Charlie,
I believe it would be highly advisable that before you publish another blog article that you receive help from an editor, an English teacher or someone who knows how to write properly punctuated, grammatically correct sentences. Unfortunately, the quantity of and continuous stream in errors detract from the content of the article.
Your writing exhibits a fundamental lack of understanding in basic sentence composition and structure. You seem to be totally confused with regard to when you should use a comma, a period and/or a semicolon and the implications of using that punctuation in your writing.
It appears to me that you transcribed an interview with Spirit Wildcat. My comments are not a reflection on her nor the subject matter of this article, but rather focus on the plethora of errors found in your writing which regularly sully articles under your byline.
The following corrections are needed to your article:
1. In the 1st paragraph, within a sentence as you have written it, a hyphen should not be used when identifying an individual’s name who is holding a title; you should use a comma instead.
It is an appropriate practice (according to guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style & the Cambridge Guide to English Usage) to write out the entire series of words which comprise an abbreviation or an acronym at its first appearance especially when an abbreviation is not commonly known. It should be written as: “Bay Area American Indian Two Spirit (BAAITS) Powwow”.
2. In the 2nd paragraph, the words “afternoon” and “evening” should NOT be capitalized. There should be a period or a semicolon after the word “Wildcat” not a comma. This is a run-on sentence.
3. In the 3rd paragraph, there should be a period after the word “speak”. Again, this is a run-on sentence. There should be a comma after the word “life” because this is a dependent clause.
4. In the 4th paragraph, commas should be inserted around the dependent phrase “in secret”. It should be written as: “After that, in secret, I decided”.
There should be a period or semicolon after the word “won”. This is a run-on sentence. The words “threw” and “through” are homophones; in the context and the usage in this sentence, “through” is the correct spelling and meaning.
When quoting someone or someone’s thought, you need to capitalize the first word in the quotation and you need to include proper punctuation within the quotation. It should be written something similar to: “Oh snaps! What did I get myself into?”
There should be a period or a semicolon after the word “awesome”. This is a run-on sentence. Then, you have an extra period which needs to be deleted in the next sentence after the word “Idaho”.
The subsequent sentence is another run-on sentence. You need a period or a semicolon after the word “Idaho”.
5. In the 5th paragraph, a comma should be inserted after the word “that”. There is an extra “to” following the word “world” which needs to be deleted.
You need to use a comma before the word “but”; alternatively, you could choose to use a period (and start a new sentence beginning with the word “But”) since this sentence is rather long. A comma needs to be inserted after 2014 since this is a dependent clause.
Furthermore, the rest of this sentence is wrong. To correct it, you have a choice to either:
A. Insert a period or semicolon after the word “title” and then you would also need to insert the word “the” in between “then next” (as in “then the next”.)
B. Alternatively, instead of inserting a period or semicolon after the word “title”, you could choose to insert the word “and”. (If you do this, then you would NOT insert the word “the”.)
Any words inserted into a quotation need to be surrounded by square brackets indicating the you have edited original text.
6. In your next chronological question, you confuse “its” (possessive case pronoun) with “it’s” (a contraction of the 2 words “it is”.) BTW…you made the same mistake in your article regarding the primary election. In this case, you need to insert an apostrophe. Also, you have an extra spaces before the commas in both the question and answer which need to be deleted. In the 6th paragraph, you need to insert a comma before the word/conjunction “but”.
7. In the next chronological question, you need to change the 2nd occurrence of the word “you” into “your”; it should be written as: “…what are your future…”
In the 7th paragraph, you need to replace the comma after the word “negative” with a period. This is another run-on sentence. You need to delete the comma after the word “questions” and insert the word “that” within square brackets ([that] again to indicate that a direct quotation has been edited.) You need to insert a period and the word “answer”. You also need to insert a comma before the conjunction “but”.
8. In the 8th paragraph, delete the “s” in the word “prides” (sic). Also since I believe you are referring to a proper noun, the “P” in “prides” (sic) should be capitalized.
9. Lastly, in the 1st reply regarding things people don’t know about Spirit Wildcat, you need to add a space between “every” and “day” given the contextual usage (i.e. “every” is an adjective modifying the word “day” whereas “everyday” is an adjective which would need an object.)
Turenne
says:Dancing and sharing is the spirit of our soul’s prerogative. Spirit Wildcat is using well this prerogative. Kudos!
Turenne
says:Dancing and sharing is the spirit or our soul’s prerogative. Spirit Wildcat is using well this prerogative. Kudo!