On the Coteau des Prairies, a glacier-carved plateau in eastern South Dakota, artist Erin Genia will hang a 20-foot banner from a tower that extends 80 feet off the ground. The work is titled “Wičaȟpi”, which translates to “star” in Dakota, a language of the Sioux Nation.
Nicollet Tower stands on the Lake Traverse Reservation, where Genia spent her formative years. She is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe.
“When I come home, I know there aren’t a lot of resources for art,” Genia said. Hyperallergic. She said the project stemmed from her desire to bring artwork back to her stash. Genia launched a GoFundMe to support his project and hopes the fundraiser will allow him to organize an event for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate community.
The banner will feature the morning star, an important symbol of Dakota. Genia’s family has a long history of depicting the pattern on quilts, and now the artist has extended the tradition into her own practice. Over the past few years, Genia has created other public artworks depicting the Dakota star, including installations nearby Tufts University and the Seattle Center.
“I found it to be a really powerful experience, because the work is designed to be accessible to a public audience,” Genia said. “And because it’s in a public space and in direct contact with the outside, it can really be in conversation with a site.”
Genia explained that the Dakotas found refuge on the Coteau des Prairies after being forced from their homes in the Minnesota River Valley during the Dakota uprising of 1862. (The name of the tower does not reflect this history — Joseph N. Nicollet was a French cartographer who visited the area in the 1830s.)
The work will also pay tribute to the artist’s sister, Carolyn Genia, who died last year at the age of 27.
“Our community, like many reservations and Native American communities, has been hit very hard by the pandemic,” Genia said. “I saw this banner as an opportunity to come together in a healing way and honor my sister.”
Genia says “Wicaȟpi”, like the tower, will be visible from afar. The cutouts and material of the Dakota jingle dresses will allow her to move with the wind.
A climb to the top of the Nicollet tower offers a wide view of the surrounding landscape. The place is a tourist destination, an attribute that Genia sees as a way to engage a non-native audience in addition to natives on the reservation.
Genia aims to install “Wičaȟpi” the week before Memorial Day. It will remain on the Nicollet Tower until October, when the artist says the winds will become too strong for the work.
