Lakota Honor - Sees The Horses Woman - SuWakan Ayutan Win

Rhonda Holy Bear uses her art to create cross-generational connections with ancestors. She created this exceptional and intricate sculpture over 12 years. With a body entirely carved from wood, it features 32 different Lakota techniques, such as beading and quillworking, and has been awarded “Best in Show” three times in major Native art competitions. The sculpture portrays a Lakota widow honoring her fallen husband by wearing his regalia, including his eagle-feather war bonnet. She demonstrates her own accomplishments as a woman, wife, and mother in her belt of honors. The deeply personal figure was inspired by Holy Bear’s paternal grandmother Josephine Sees The Horses Woman, who was born in 1872 and whose father was killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.