Dignity award honors five Indigenous women

RAPID CITY—Five women have been named the inaugural recipients of the Dignity of Earth & Sky Leadership Award, a new annual honor recognizing an outstanding South Dakota Indigenous woman for leadership, courage, perseverance and wisdom.

Cecelia Fire Thunder, Gay Kingman, Tamara St. John, Belinda Jo Rencountre and Cante Heart received the first awards during the 10th anniversary celebration for the Dignity of Earth & Sky sculpture in Chamberlain on September 20.

South Dakota Artist Laureate Dale Claude Lamphere created the awards from stainless steel fragments remaining from construction of Dignity. Each recipient’s name was etched into a steel triangle, which was then matted and framed. The connection to the monument makes each award more than a plaque. The women are receiving an actual piece of the sculpture’s history.

Dignity has become one of South Dakota’s most recognizable landmarks. The 50-foot stainless steel figure stands on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River near Chamberlain, her hands holding a star quilt that appears to move with the prairie wind. The quilt consists of 128 blue steel diamonds reflecting the colors of the river and sky.

The 12-ton monument was commissioned by Rapid City residents Norm and Eunabel McKie as a $1 million gift to the people of South Dakota. Announced during the state’s 125th anniversary in 2014, the project was designed and constructed by Lamphere and dedicated on September 17, 2016.

Lamphere did not model Dignity after one specific person. Three Native women of different generations helped inspire the face and form, allowing the figure to represent more than an individual. Dignity was created to honor the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people and the endurance of the Indigenous cultures of the Great Plains.

During the decade since her dedication, Dignity has become a place where travelers stop, reflect and take photographs. She faces east above the Missouri, wrapped in a Plains-style dress, with the star quilt spread behind her. Her name and location carry a powerful message: Indigenous people are not relics of South Dakota’s past, but living peoples whose cultures and contributions remain central to the state.

The new award will extend that message by honoring living women whose work gives substance to the ideals represented by the sculpture.

The five inaugural recipients will form the first selection committee and determine next year’s honoree. Each future recipient will then join the committee, allowing the award to grow under the direction of the women it honors.

Future nominees must be living South Dakota residents and enrolled members of federally recognized tribes located in the state. Nomination forms will be available online through the South Dakota Hall of Fame, which will assist with nominations, selection and presentation of the awards.

The award is modeled after the Spirit of Dakota Award, inspired by the nine-foot Spirit of Dakota sculpture. That organization will celebrate its 40th anniversary October 3 in Huron.

With the new award, fragments left from creating Dignity will now honor women who carry her meaning into the world.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

The post Dignity award honors five Indigenous women first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source