Evangelisto, Miss Winona, becomes first indigenous woman to win Miss Minnesota

Rachel Evangelisto made pageant history on Friday, June 17, 2022, by becoming the first Native American to win Miss Minnesota, representing southeastern Minnesota as Miss Winona.

So we talked to the newly crowned 25-year-old woman about what the victory means to her and other indigenous people, how she overcame her own self-esteem struggles as a young Native American woman, and how it is that she came to represent Winona, even though she doesn’t live there.

PB: So you were raised in Rapid City, South Dakota, and graduated from the University of Minnesota Morris. You live in the Twin Cities. So how did you end up representing southeastern Minnesota as Miss Winona?

Evangelisto: So my first exposure to Winona was through family that used to live there. The reason I actually decided to run for Miss Winona was my cultural background. I’m an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is a Lakota/Dakota tribe. And Winona itself is on Dakota land, and I knew that it has this really rich history with Native American cultures and my people.

By Matthew Stolle