Artist Spotlight: 19 Indigenous Creatives You Should Know

Emmy Her Many Horses, a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, is an educator, musician, sewist and creator. Raised in a large family on the Rosebud Reservation, she watched and learned from her parents who uplifted Indigenous creatives and tirelessly served the community.

This led to her following a career in service as an educator, while utilizing her artistic creativity through her small business, The Sicangu Sewist. Growing up, Emmy saw so many Indigenous-inspired patterns created by non-Indigenous people.

These were sold without uplifting the communities that brought them to the world, by people who often didn’t understand the significance of the designs within Indigenous communities.

As a rule, Emmy’s creations utilize Indigenous patterned fabrics designed by Indigenous peoples that give back to Indigenous peoples, communities, and businesses, bringing forward what she always wants the chance to purchase from other creators.

Greg Johnson is a cultural practitioner and art educator in the Anishinaabe tradition. He works with youth and others to teach the skills and knowledge of his culture.

He has been making traditional baskets for 15 years and also creates detailed beadwork and moccasin sewing as well as fabric designing.

He is an Ojibwe language teacher and stays busy hunting, fishing and raising four kids.

Shana Yellow Calf Lukinich is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming and has produced art in various mediums since the 90s.

Her contemporary style reflects her plains heritage, her mother’s Chippewa/Metis ancestry, along with a Pacific Northwest Coastal influence from the Puget Sound area of Washington where she grew up.

Shana is a registered member of the Department of the Interior Source Directory for Native American Artists. As a community service, 10buffalos.com continues to provide free masks for adults and children throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Don D Basina is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Ojibwe Tribe located in Northern Wisconsin.

DDBaz Designs reflect Health & Wellness, Indigenous, Native gaming and the Creator’s Game of Lacrosse.

Multidisciplinary artist Hillary Kempenich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and currently resides in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Kempenich is an established studio artist and advocate for the arts, education, social justice, and Indigenous issues.

Hillary Kempenich is fluent in many mediums with a collaborative style influenced by her independent spirit as a creative woman and her deep connection to her cultural heritage.

“In Anishinaabemowin, there is no word for art; our daily lives are part of the creative process. I am a storyteller; my creations tell stories from personal experiences, identity, historical knowledge, and observations. As we work to decolonize the spaces that we are part of, it is imperative that we self-actualize.

My work intertwines my traditional customs into modern sensibilities. My work is inspired also by the teachings given to me by foraging, gardening, and self-sustainability—I believe one of the most radical ideas of bringing balance is through the act of connecting with Aki, the earth.”

– Hillary Kempenich

The designs in our Spoonflower shop are designed by an Alutiiq tribal member and fund educational programs of our non-profit Native-run and governed culture center.

All designs have a basis in Alutiiq material culture, such as petroglyphs, pictographs and cultural objects from the Alutiiq region.

Jessica Moore Harjo, Ph.D., weomepe, is an artist, designer and educator based in Oklahoma. Jessica’s approach to art and design is unique, post-traditional and grounded in cultural symbolism. Her pieces display intersections of traditional ribbon work, florals, appliqué, elements of nature and other harmonious and symmetrical forms with atmospheric color palettes.

Jessica has current displays of art at Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Oklahoma City’s Automobile Door Tour Alley, Tulsa Art Alley, the Osage Nation Museum and Osage Nation Casino. She is a contributing artist for the Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum Origins Theatre with digital design contributions to the Otoe-Missouria origins story.

Upcoming work includes a public art installation at the Oklahoma State Capitol, a public art mural with Iowa Department of Transportation and she is one of the four selected artists for the Sites of Conscience Public Art project in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I was raised by my grandmother in a rural area of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. We lived in a small house, seven miles from town on a few acres of land. Today, I understand how being so close to the land in my childhood has influenced my art; the memories of plants and flowers, our relationship with the land and the healing properties that come from those.

Just like the natural world is intertwined with life cycles and relationships dependent on survival, so is my art. I lean on my community and our traditions to inspire me. I am unable to flourish as an artist without them. The natural world has the power to regenerate itself, just like our communities. And as artists, we have the power to regenerate our traditions.

I have a passion for traditional Dakota floral styles and designs and have been committed to preserving and sharing these art forms and lifeways. Through art, I affirm myself as a Dakota woman and mother by practicing Winyan Omniciye, the circle of sharing knowledge—what you learn, you give back.

As a Dakota artist, my work embodies the love, patience, resiliency and beauty of my ancestors’ legacies and the land that has provided since time immemorial. I use the traditional styles of Dakota beadwork, quillwork and ledger art to be a seed from which my vision grows.

My name is Jessica Hernandez. I am Kanienkeha and a member of the bear clan. I live in Kahnawake, QC, where I have a small shop that sells bead and craft supplies, as well as offer classes, bead challenges and a safe and healthy space to create.

A few years ago I started to dabble in creating different indigenous designs, using Iroquois-style beadwork and shapes. I think it’s important for indigenous people to have healthy outlets and creative activities that will connect them back to who they are.

I also think it’s important for indigenous designs to be created by indigenous artists and designers.

Bill Brien is a Lakota, Dakota, Chippewa, Metis artist. Brien is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota. Brien is also from the Spirit Lake Nation also in North Dakota. A self-taught artist, Brien calls himself a “digital cell phone artist.” His chosen medium is digital art, using his cell phone as his canvas to create all his work.

Brien’s art has been displayed around various North Dakota art galleries: Bismarck Art & Galleries Association (Bismarck), Bismarck Downtown Artist Cooperative (Bismarck), Gallery 4 (Fargo) and the Red Door Art Gallery (Wahpeton).

Brien participated in the 2020 Online Heard Museum Indian Art Market.

In 2016, Brien found his love and passion for art because of his wife, Geri, Lakota from Cheyenne River. Geri was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. In early 2015 Geri was cancer free but by the end of 2015 the cancer had returned and spread.

The highlight of Brien’s art career is being recognized by the Bismarck Cancer Center at its annual Hope Giver’s Extraordinaire Banquet. Brien was recognized for donations made to the Bismarck Cancer Center from art sales in honor of his late wife, Geri. Geri made her Heavenly journey May 1, 2018, after a four year battle with breast cancer.

Yearly, Brien donates a portion of his art proceeds to the Bismarck Cancer Center in honor of his wife, Geri.

Rachel Mae Dennis-Butzin is an indigenous artist whose work is a reflection of her diverse heritage as well as her love of the environment, comic books and pop culture. Rachel is a graduate of Michigan State University and currently resides in South Dakota with her family where she is an art teacher at a Native American School.

Rachel’s illustrations can be seen in children’s books and on clothing. She has collaborated with several musicians on animations for music videos and created logo designs for several companies.

Tansi my name is Osamuskwasis Roan. I am Nehiyaw and Tsuu T’ina and am from Pigeon Lake Alberta, Canada.

I am an indigenous language student at Yellow Head Tribal College and am also a designer/beadwork artist. I have been sewing since the age of 9 and beading since the age of 12.

The inspiration behind my art is the strong relationship that we, the Yup’ik Eskimo people, have with the tundra. The flowers, the berries, the tools, symbols and clothing that identify our culture—these designs are created for representation.

I wanted other artists to feel a connection with the materials they use while creating, and to invoke emotion in those who wear the pieces.

I am Mdewakanton Dakota and enrolled with the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota, the homelands of my people. I am a multi-disciplinary artist, focusing more on the traditional arts associated with the Dakota people.

In the midst of the pandemic, I made the transition to work towards designing fabric with the idea that other native people could adorn themselves using fabric designed by a native artist using traditional Dakota floral design elements.

Tessa Sayers grew up in Washington State on a small llama farm. She is a certified Native artist with her tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa from North Dakota. Her indigenous family encompasses three tribal communities, Metis (Manitoba), Chippewa and Cree.

In 2017, she started a holistic brand, Soul Curiosity, translating her personal healing journey through art, using a variety of mediums to tell stories, empowering others to cultivate self-love, embrace vulnerability, heal inner wounds and live courageously through the teachings of the Native American medicine wheel.

George Curtis Levi is a member of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe and is also part Arapaho and Oglala. Influenced by the art and history of the Cheyenne People, George centers his artistic specialty around the Cheyenne Ledger Art, though he engages in other styles as well.

He is happily married with children.

Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota) is a self-taught artist located in St Paul, Minnesota.

Her multifaceted portfolio includes fabric patterns, animations, children’s books, public art, augmented reality and illustrations to bring modernity to Indigenous history, languages and oral traditions.

Hi! I’m Malerie, an Alaska Native Unangax mother and artist. I was born and raised on the island of Sand Point, on the Aleutian Chain. I live for our summers!

I love being on the ocean, walking our beaches, eating all the berries and getting my hands full of scales! Creating art (in all forms) is my passion!

Kimberly (Cherokee) was raised deep in rural Oklahoma. She is an eclectic multi-media artist, mother, veteran and advocate for sustainability. She holds degrees in Business, Electronic Systems and Leadership.

Her diversity of life experiences has a dynamic and encompassing impact on her work.