Shaandiin Parrish is not your typical beauty queen. Born and raised on the Navajo Nation reservation in Kayenta, Parrish, 24, has competed in dozens of Native American pageants and earned numerous titles, including the title of Miss Indian Arizona in 2016. But Parrish, who graduated from Arizona State University after studying political science and public policy, is not a new face in the Capitol community. A former Senate page and constituent services liaison for the same chamber, Parrish was recently tapped to serve as the new spokeswoman for the state Treasurer’s Office under Kimberly Yee.

How did you first meet Treasurer Kimberly Yee?

I knew Senator Yee before she was majority leader. I believe I knew her during her second term in the Senate.

How did you get involved at the Legislature?

I was originally studying public policy at the downtown ASU campus. In one of my classes, my professor asked us to interview an elected official. So, I chose to interview, at the time, LD7 Senator Carlyle Begay. I shadowed him, and he encouraged me to apply for the page program because I was a semester in. Luckily, I applied on the last day and got accepted.

How did you like being a page?

I loved being a page. The page position is an amazing position to have and I’m really lucky. You really get to see the personalities of the members firsthand and be a part of the energy – and that’s something I’m probably never going to experience again unless I’m an elected official. So, from there, I started to get to know some of the senators. Not personally. It was more just watching and observing and really picking up on their leadership styles and their speaking ability. I thought that was one of the most, one of the coolest things that I could watch because I myself do pageants, so public speaking is a big thing for me. I like to watch speeches. I like to watch people on TV and their styles of speaking, so that’s what intrigued me.

How did you start doing pageants?

Native American pageants are different than your typical glitz or natural pageant. The Native American pageant system, they’re completely different from each other. The Native American pageant realm really varies because it could be a person who represents their entire tribe or they could represent their school.

How old were you when you started doing pageants?

I started when I was in fifth grade. My first pageant was our elementary school pageant, and I did that completely by myself. My family didn’t help me. I had the help of a fifth grade teacher because she was a former Miss Navajo Nation. All of the titles actually, you have to be culturally knowledgeable about your traditions and your culture. And their rating system is very different from your glitz or natural pageant. It’s solely based on your language ability, how well you can speak in your language, your culture and just what you know about your tribe. The only real similarity between the glitz pageant and our Native American pageants in general is that public speaking is a big thing — stage presence, grace, poise and your ability to talk to people.

When most people think of beauty pageants, they think of ball gowns and swimsuits. I’m assuming you wear traditional Navajo dress in your pageants?

Yes. Every pageant, when you do your pageant walk, you’re actually walking in your traditional clothes instead of heels or an evening gown. When you’re displaying your poise and grace, you’re in your traditional outfit and you have to explain what the traditional outfit means to your culture, to your tribe.

Do you still compete?

The cutoff age for most is 24. There’s one pageant that cuts off at 27. It’s also a really big commitment because when you’re a titleholder, it comes with a lot of community service.

Where do you see yourself going in the long run?

I think I’m still learning, I’m still trying to understand the different parts of government. In the long run, I decided ultimately that I wanted to go into policy and politics to really work for other people, because I like community service. That’s also a reason why I like participating in pageants, because it is very community-service based. I’m not sure where I see myself, I just know as long as I’m helping our community, helping Arizona and the tribal nations that I know I’m where I’m supposed to be.

Do you think there is enough tribal representation in the Legislature?

From when I started to today, there is a greater representation of tribal nations and that’s excellent, that’s amazing. I think that I’m excited to see how it evolves because out of all of the people in my generation, of the college students that are millennials, I’m the only Native American intern or page or young person that I’ve seen in my four years here at the Capitol. And I’m just excited to see how it evolves because I don’t know how the future looks if they don’t have the same experiences that I do.

How do you like working in the Treasurer’s Office so far?

I love the community. It’s one of the smallest agencies in our system, and I really love it.

No day is the same, I can tell you that.

It’s kind of a funny coincidence that Kimberly Yee is breaking barriers as the first Asian American elected to a statewide office, and now you’re breaking barriers as one of the only Native Americans working at the Capitol. How does that feel?

It’s awesome. That’s one of the reasons why early on, she became somebody I looked up to, because I could see that she is so smart. She is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. When I first met her, I didn’t think anything of that because I didn’t realize how underrepresented women were until I really started to study the issue. But when she became majority leader, we also had Debbie Lesko as our president pro tempore, Gail Griffin as the majority whip and it was a lot of female leadership. I have been very, very lucky to grow up in a time to have an internship with a lot of women leadership.