The Happy Canyon Board of Directors has named Clarise “Clair” Huesties and Mary Rivera as the 2020 Happy Canyon Princesses.
They will serve as the 2020 ambassadors for the Happy Canyon Night Show, Oregon’s official outdoor night pageant.
“We are thrilled to have these two talented local young women represent Happy Canyon this next year,” said Happy Canyon President Tanner Hawkins. “Their family roots run deep in Happy Canyon, so we’re honored to have them serve as our representatives in 2020.”
Huesties’ Native name is X̣ix̣cíyu Hiʔlakáʔwin̓, which means Little Star Lit Up in Niimiipuu. She has called the Pendleton area her home for most of her life, and graduated from Weston-McEwen High School in 2015. Huesties is currently working on her bachelor degree in psychology online through Ashworth College, and am a Sahaptin Language Apprentice with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). She enjoys music – she plays the guitar, piano, ukulele and violin – and enjoys traditional gathering of first foods and making regalia. Upon completion of her education, Huesties plans to help with the preservation of Native languages, and eventually become a school psychologist.
Huesties is an enrolled member of the CTUIR, and is Cayuse, Nez Perce, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Palouse, Lakota Oglala Sioux, and Winnebago. Her parents are Brian Huesties and the late Mylie Nash-Huesties. Her great-grandmother, Velma Patrick-Burke, headed the Happy Canyon tipi and Indian props maintenance and setup for more than 40 years.
“Becoming a Happy Canyon princess means I get to represent my family and our history, our people, and the Happy Canyon the best way I can,” Huesties said. “I also get the chance to be someone my little cousins, nieces, and other impressionable young girls can look up to and feel inspired.”
Rivera, whose Indian name is Kuckuc Piswe (Little Rock), is the daughter of Nora and Shawn Rivera, and she’s a 2018 graduate of Pendleton High School. She’s an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of the Chippawa Indians in Montana. She is currently a sophomore at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, where she’s studying pre-nursing. She plans to transfer to Central Washington University next fall, where she’ll continue her education and pursue a degree in dietetics and nutrition. After graduation, Rivera would like to return to Eastern Oregon where she hopes to work as a registered dietitian for the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Clinic or another clinic in the Pendleton area. She enjoys bird hunting, running, snowboarding, cooking and restoring and refurbishing furniture.
As a young girl, Rivera participated in the Junior Indian Beauty Pageant during the Pendleton Round-Up, and participated in Happy Canyon in the Tribes from Other Nations and Street scenes. Her aunt, Drew Johnson Rivera, was a Happy Canyon princess in 2000.
“It has been a dream of mine to wear the title since I was a very young girl,” Rivera said. “I consider it an honor to represent the Happy Canyon for 2020.”
