I was born and raised in NW Montana, on the Flathead Indian reservation; my father was Bitterroot Salish/Upper Q’lispe’ and my mother was the daughter of non-Indigenous settlers who moved to the reservation in the 1920s.  I grew up with access to these two different worlds and became aware, very early, that the history of Indigenous peoples as taught in schools, if it was taught at all, was not complete or truthful. For centuries, aided and abetted by the US Government, non-Indigneous Americans have cultivated a purposeful and harmful amnesia with regard to Indigenous people and culture. 

My current work pushes against this amnesia by creating “stories” that investigate concepts of erasure, kinship, belonging, transition, transformation, and ambiguity. My work also celebrates the resilience and survivance of Indigenous people, giving voice to that part of me that has survived and thrived. I consider myself and my work a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, between Western European art and Indigenous art, and between the past and the future.