In 2019, Louisville City Council proclaimed the second Monday of October each year as Indigenous Peoples' Day to recognize the foundational and cultural contributions of Indigenous Peoples to the history of our community. This year, Indigenous Peoples' Day will be celebrated on October 10. In early October, the City of Louisville will place banners on downtown streets to mark Indigenous Peoples' Day, featuring art from Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟota artist Danielle SeeWalker.

Artist Statement

The artwork style is a contemporary spin on “ledger art”, a style of drawing that many Plains Tribes adapted to document a story or event that happened within their community: narrative drawing. The lack of detail and the flatness in style is because it wasn’t about the artistic skill, it was about what was happening in the drawing. Historically, these drawings were done on animals hides but in the late 1800’s, when many Natives were imprisoned or forced onto reservations, hunting was forbidden. Drawing was then done on old account ledger sheets as a way to continue on with this type of pictographic art. Today, ledger art continues to be created by many Native American artists. I have done many murals in this type of style and wanted to create this banner to pay homage to that traditional type of artwork but give it a contemporary vibe. The Native American woman depicted in this banner is a woman of today. She represents the style of how our women dress in their “Indian best” and wear elements of our traditional dress and accessories but keep it relevant to today through contemporary colors and pairing it with fun, American Indian accessories such as a beaded hat and dentallium earrings. The floral accents represent the traditional “Dakota floral” patterns that have been seen in my peoples’ beadwork for many generations.

— Danielle SeeWalker, Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta and citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe