By ANN COGGINS
Big Y Community
You may be wondering why I would wait so long to write a commentary about the Fair. I wanted to give the new Tribal government time to get things settled from the past year and for the Executive Office to fill the Secretary positions.
Now that things are a little more settled, I would like to bring something to the attention of our people and ask for you to contact our Chief, Vice Chief, and Councilmen.
I had lived away for some time and had not attended the fair in years. I was very excited to be able to go this year and wanted to experience everything. I enjoyed almost everything. However, the Pretty Legs Contest was unacceptable.
I had only gone to the Pretty Legs Contest one time when I was young. It was funny and not inappropriate at that time. However, when I attended it this year, I was appalled and angered.
The music that was played was vulgar. Two of the songs were “Pretty Girls Walk” by Big Boss Vette and “Low” featuring T-Pain by Flo-Rida. The songs were not censored in any way. The lyrics contained words that can’t (and shouldn’t!) even be spoken in Council Chambers. The songs themselves describe situations not appropriate for public broadcast, especially around children.
The contest itself was not about “Pretty Legs” but more about who could be the most crude and offensive. The names were all sexual with one even using one of our Tribal family names as a slur! The Contestants (all male) pretended to be uncultured and morally deficient women.
It was surprising to me that a small group could represent all EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) citizens to anyone watching or recording video that night in such an embarrassing manner, apparently with the Tribal Government’s blessing. I do NOT want to be represented in that way, nor should I ever feel like I, a private citizen, need to apologize to anyone for something harmful that my Tribe has done.
Children and tourists were present. Several families left in disgust. I was not able to leave due to the bleachers not being marked in a way that people from the 3rd seats to the top could leave.
Since moving home, the consistent message I have heard is that we are a “no harm Tribe”, we want to find ways to bring tourist families back to our area, we support women and do not degrade them, we are against bullying, we are bringing back OUR culture, and reclaiming our heritage and language. This contest went against all of that and more.
No family should be bullied or degraded because of their name. There was absolutely nothing respectful towards women or family-friendly about the contest, even though children were present in the audience and all around. Teaching our children, that it’s fine to use this kind of language and performing skits portraying women as nothing more than sexual beings with no integrity is very harmful. Our language does not even have curse words. Furthermore, there was nothing culturally appropriate about this contest.
I feel that anyone who participated in this Event broke 1 or 2 Codes of the EBCI Tribal Code of Ordinances, Section 96.2 subsections a and c.
I have already sent a very lengthy email to our Chief, Vice Chief, and all members of the Council. It included my concerns, the uncensored lyrics and transcript of some of the Contest, and the entire wording of the 2 Codes that I think were broken. I sent them uncensored because it was part of our Fair and was performed in public and our Tribal Leaders need to see with their own eyes the words and actions that children and everyone else present were exposed to.
I am asking our Tribal citizens to contact our Chief, Vice Chief, and Councilmen to let them know this is unacceptable. We have a responsibility to protect our children, our women, the Integrity of our Tribe, and our future. It takes us all together to move our Tribe forward in the right direction.
