Belle Brings Plenty

Han Mitakuyapi, Belle Ota Au emaciya! Hello everyone my name is Belle Brings Plenty and I’m from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. I am Mnicoujou Lakota but also part Oglala and Hunkpapa. I grew up watching my mom and dad make traditional arts such as beading, quilling, drawing, drum making, etc. So as I got older I started to create my own forms of traditional arts starting with parfleche. From there I taught myself to work with other forms of traditional arts. Crafting has always been a way for me to express myself and create meaningful art pieces.

I grew up around my traditional Lakota ceremonies and have the utmost respect for our way of life. The tatanka (buffalo) plays a very important role in our ways as does the sunkawakan (horse). These relatives have provided and helped us for many years, so I created a Lakota buffalo horse mask purse to show how sacred they are to us as Lakota people. I’ve adorned this mask with brain-tanned deer hide, ribbon, beads, brass sequins/beads/bells/cones, tradecloth, horse hair and parfleche. When creating this piece I thought a lot of my brother who passed, so I call this “Wakiyans Dream.”