From left are Tiffany Stuart-Wisdom, Elliot Bryant, Rebecca Jamison, Adriana Tahdooahnippah and her mother, Tashina. While members of the Haskell Indian Nations University Royalty Committee tally ballots for the next Miss Haskell and Brave, 4-year-old Adriana played a game of peek-a-boo in Jamison's dormitory room at Roe Cloud Hall.

Haskell Indian Nations University is abuzz.

Alumni and the board of regents are on campus discussing how to improve the college while students are taking their last finals, packing and preparing for Friday’s graduation and pow wow ceremonies.

Rebecca Jamison, of White Swan, Wash., turns in her books this afternoon and returns to her room on the third floor of Roe Cloud Hall, a coed dormitory. She shares the one-window room with Yolanda Spenser, of Lakewood, Wash. Each has a twin bed, desk and closet. They share a couch and television.

Jamison, a junior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in American Indian studies, is preparing to step down from her yearlong reign as Miss Haskell. Tears form in her eyes as she recalls the friends she made during the past year.

“I will miss it,” she says.

She is waiting for Royalty Committee members to bring the judges’ results of the recent Miss Haskell competition. They knock on her door about 5 p.m., as scheduled. Tiffany Stuart-Wisdom, a former Miss Haskell, and Jamison sit on the bed while Elliot Bryant finds a spot on the couch.

They begin adding scores and double-checking each others’ addition. Each sheet of results needs three signatures.

Jamison jokes, “I can’t believe I just used a calculator to add and it was less than 20.”

About 5:30 p.m., Tashina Tahdooahnippah arrives to help and brings her daughter, Adriana, 4, who provides entertainment and sparks smiles.

“Becca, I see you,” she says as she peeks from behind the window’s purple curtain.

By 6:15 p.m., the results are in but the next Miss Haskell (Twila White Bull) won’t be revealed until 8 p.m. during the pow wow.