Donald Montileaux
Oglala Lakota Tribe
Donald Montileaux, “Yellowbird” is a modern day storyteller rekindling the images of the Lakota lifestyle in his paintings. He is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge South Dakota. Donald regards himself as having a mission, “To portray the Lakota, the Native Americans, in an honest way. To illustrate them as people who hunted buffalo, made love, raised children, cooked meals, and lived.”He says, “To describe my work is to reflect back to my forefathers. The surfaces that they used were hides, rock walls and surfaces both smooth and rough..”
Donald thinks of himself as a self-taught artist. He did however, receive formal training at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico and did an internship under noted artist Oscar Howe at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. Donald also credits his personal friend and mentor, the late Herman Red Elk, as his primary artistic influence.
Donald’s 30-year career spans the globe. His art is illustrated on the cover of six books and is included in numerous public and private collections. One of Donald’s paintings accompanied the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1995, as part of the mission payload.
We invite all our patrons to see Montileaux’s ledger art, which emulates the two-dimensional designs created by his forefathers in the 1860’s. Donald admits that ink, pencil and watercolors are easier to handle than stick and bone on animal hides. He uses historic ledger paper, brilliant color, and depicts Lakota people in an honest and unmistakable way.
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