Dawn Little Sky


Dawn Little Sky Artist, Actress, Dancer, and Teacher A Lakota Living Treasure

By Abena Songbird KYLE, SD — Dawn Little Sky is from Standing Rock, grew up in Ft. Yates North Dakota, and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Her parents, John and Ethel Gates were from Standing Rock. Her grandmother, Nellie Gates, the daughter of Chief Two Bear, and mother both were extremely deft in the Lakota arts of bead and quill work. She learned at their feet. “Her beadwork is in the Smithsonian,” Little Sky proudly said of her grandmother’s work. A renowned Traditional Dancer, Little Sky also has a long history of work as an artist in a variety of mediums: oils, acrylic, charcoal, pastels, sculpture and mural work, and has taught Lakota Arts and History in many tribal schools in South Dakota. She was head staff for 2005 Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Read more in the Fall 2009 Issue…)		"I was the first female eyapaha in Anaheim Park, California. We used to '49 all night in those days. They were very tame back then. We had all our children and just naturally gravitated together with other Indian families" -Dawn Little Sky