Tanyan Yahi

The Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies developed an innovative exhibit in 2015 that focused on the Lakota emergence narrative, “How the Lakota Came Upon the World.” This narrative was recorded by James Walker sometime between 1896, when he first arrived at Pine Ridge to serve as the agency’s physician, and 1917 when it was published by the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibit divided the 1,251-word narrative into sixteen “passages” and paired each passage with a distinguished or emerging Lakotan artist, who then created a new artwork linked to the passage.

This online version of the exhibit highlights the sixteen artworks and situates them in relation to the narrative as well as to contemporary issues in Lakota country. It vividly illustrates the vibrant diversity of Lakotan arts and artists today.

The place of emergence in what is now the Black Hills of South Dakota was and always will remain a place of special significance in Lakotan cosmology. This emergence narrative is one reason this is so.