Left: Miss Navajo Nation Shaandiin Parrish distributes food and supplies to Navajo families hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in Durango, Colorado, on June 2, 2020. Right: Miss Navajo Nation Shaandiin Parrish visits elders at the Nahata' Dziil Senior Center in Sanders on Feb. 14, 2020.
PHOENIX-After winning the title of Miss Navajo Nation in September 2019, Shaandiin Parrish immediately got to work on the cultural preservation and advocacy efforts central to the role.
At times, she attended five or more events in a single day, traveling across the 27,000-square-mile reservation to speak to elementary school students and attend conferences.
"You really hit the ground running," Parrish recalled. "There's no event too small. There's no event too big."
But in March, as COVID-19 swept through the Southwest, Parrish suddenly went from visiting elders and delivering motivational sp...
