South Dakota Native American artists visit DSU

December 11, 2024

For the past 50 years, DSU's Native American Student Association (NASA) has brought speakers to campus and hosted events to celebrate Indigenous cultures. This month, NASA brought three Native American artists to campus to talk with students about their artistic journeys.

Wade Patton, Gene Swallow, and J. White brought some of their works to campus and discussed their works, creative inspirations, and passions as Native American artists.

1. White, a Native American artist who owns Post Pilgrim Gallery in Sioux Falls, shared pieces in her favorite medium, acrylic.

Her inspiration comes from other artists like Native artists Oscar Howe and Robert Penn, as well as her heritage, including Native American and Norwegian roots. Much of her work incorporates works of nature, like the Seven Sisters, a constellation important to natives, and the Seven Sisters Waterfall in Norway.

"I get the beauty of my Arikara culture and my Norwegian culture, and I get to pick the best of both worlds," she said.

Patton works in several mediums, including oil pastels, ink, pencil, and beadwork. He also creates artwork on old ledgers. Referred to as "ledger art" in Native American culture, it was developed to depict their stories, battles, and cultural events on paper taken from old accounting ledger books. This art form was considered a transitional medium as Native Americans dealt with colonization.

Patton's work often features clouds and Lakota values.

"I'm inspired by the clouds of South Dakota," he said. "I'll use seven in my art, seven buffaloes, seven teepees, for the seven Lakota values. And I usually do nine as well for the nine districts of the Pine Ridge Reservation."

A frequent question Patton receives is where he gets the ledgers from to create his works. He shared that they are often gifted to him, sometimes through art markets in conversation with other artists who have ledgers.

Swallow, a contemporary Lakota artist, is a family-taught artist, who has been making dolls and textile sculptures for professional exhibitions for the past six years. His artwork was featured in the DSU First Bank & Trust Gallery in the spring of 2024.

While his dolls highlight Indigenous culture by incorporating buffalo horns, natural fiber braids, and floral fabric prints, he avoids making regalia to keep them modern.

"I don't just make something because I think it's pretty; a lot of the time, there's a story behind it or there's personality," Swallow said. "I really want them to be attractive, strong, and have good posture."

Swallow credits his creative drive to his inner child, something his patrons at art shows also pick up on.

"It's always satisfying when somebody finds something in my dolls, and that connection is there," he said.

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