UCLA

This doctoral dissertation traces the relational intersections of art, land, and culture to demonstrate a continuum of Lakota intellectual traditions. Methodologically and theoretically, Indigenous articulations of relationality are the primary tool I use to communicate Lakota kinship values' interrelatedness. I illustrate a Lakota relationality through Lakota cultural connections to other-than-human beings and the use of creative practices as established through storytelling, poetry, and material culture that is represented within an accessible articulation of Oč�ti Šak�wiŋ (Northern Plains tribal) communities. My analysis applies Lakota concepts of ikč�, the everyday, and w�wayupike, ingenuity, to reify a continuum of Oč�ti Šak�wiŋ artistic engagements. I concentrate on Lakota culture, which I know intimately, and employ self-reflexivity to articulate a Lakota relationality in present-day terms. My research engages Indigenous feminist praxis, autoethnographic and ethnographic methods with family members, regional Lakota artists, local Lakota culture bearers, and Lakota community organizers working and creating in the Northern Plains region. I analyze everyday examples of creative Lakota culture not confined by formal institutions like popular art galleries or non-native museums. W�wayupike: Relational Practices Between Art, Land, and Culture contributes to ongoing conversations about how Indigenous communities continue to adapt, evolve, and find joy—as they have always done—in the face of settler colonialism, structural racism, and the long historical trajectory of oppression in what is now the United States.