Pehinsawin
Red Hair Woman
Etching of Pehinsawin in her regalia, by D. Joyce Kitson, 1994
D. Joyce Kitson, Hunkpapha Lakhota/Hidatsa, was given her Lakhota name in a traditional ceremony held on the Standing Rock reservation in North/South Dakota. She was honorably named after her great grandmother Pehinsawin/Pȟehíŋ Šá Wiŋ, because she carries on her grandmother's traditional work with beads, quills, and hides.
Her Northern Plains artwork is a combination of Lakhota/Hidatsa designs and colors from the 1800-1900s. Using her custom handmade tools, she tans her own hides and combines symbolic designs sewn with beads and porcupine/bird quills using thread and animal sinew.
She learned from and studied with several elders, including her own grandmother Alice Vaulters, and has continued to share that knowledge with apprentices over the years. She has worked throughout the past tópa decades building up networks and community connections. She has extensive experience with both studying and creating arts of the Lakhota and Hidatsa.
The artwork of D. Joyce Kitson is featured on exhibition at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, ND. See blog for details.
Her work is primarily in custom orders (email order inquiries), including individual sales and large-scale productions. She makes everything from barrettes and earrings to full-scale regalia.
Her Northern Plains artwork is a combination of Lakhota/Hidatsa designs and colors from the 1800-1900s. Using her custom handmade tools, she tans her own hides and combines symbolic designs sewn with beads and porcupine/bird quills using thread and animal sinew.
She learned from and studied with several elders, including her own grandmother Alice Vaulters, and has continued to share that knowledge with apprentices over the years. She has worked throughout the past tópa decades building up networks and community connections. She has extensive experience with both studying and creating arts of the Lakhota and Hidatsa.
The artwork of D. Joyce Kitson is featured on exhibition at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, ND. See blog for details.
Her work is primarily in custom orders (email order inquiries), including individual sales and large-scale productions. She makes everything from barrettes and earrings to full-scale regalia.
D. Joyce's artwork is a crafting of true Native American tradition.
Her pieces are meaningful from a cultural standpoint as well as very beautiful."
-Edward Schafer, Former North Dakota Governor
D. Joyce Kitson is a mult-talented Folk artist of exceptional skill
who is helping to preserve many Lakhota/Hidatsa traditions,
which she has acquired the right to do, in the extremely rare
and beautiful Hidatsa Birdquill. By teaching others the gift
she was given, she wishes to honor the elders who taught her."
-Troy Geist, State Folklorist, ND Council on the Arts
