I have been an artist all my life, but only recently began to process my relationship with my indigenous ancestors through art. It?s a clumsy process, and I am still learning.

I looked for Lakota stories, and found inspiration in them for knitted garments, beaded necklaces, drawings and paintings. I turn to art the most when I?m grieving, and between uncovering the truth about my ancestors? assimilation and the modern political violence, I have found great comfort in art as I grieve the American fantasy that I have come to learn did not die, but was never born. I make art as protest, resistance, and solidarity with people who have lived the myriad stories like and unlike mine under colonial violence. Phil?mayaye mit?kuyepi.