Denver, Colorado
Danielle SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota. She is a mother, artist, writer, curator, activist and businesswoman based in Denver. She serves as a member of the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force of Colorado and helped to pass a Senate bill that established an Office for MMIR in the state. She has also been a city commissioner for the Denver American Indian Commission since 2018 and served as co-chair from 2020 to 2022.
As a multidisciplinary fine artist and muralist, SeeWalker works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American stereotypes, microaggressions and colonialist systems, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on au courant color palettes, expressionistic art strategies and her Lakota traditions, SeeWalker spins her work into a contemporary vision to challenge what Native American art “should” be or what people expect Native American art to look like.
SeeWalker’s artwork is centric to highlighting the Native American narratives, specifically themes that have occurred in her life, and stories she has been told by her elders. She is also is a freelance writer and recently published her first book, Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People & Culture. In 2013, she embarked on a project with her longtime friend called The Red Road Project. The work uses words, photographs and video to document what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country. She recently evolved that project into a nonprofit organization with a division to provide cultural arts opportunities to Native American people living in urban areas.