A model walks the runway wearing designs by Eunice Straight Head, Ryia LeBeau, Caitlin Hein and Emily Little Hoop during the 2024 Native POP in Rapid City. Amelia Schafer Downtown Rapid City was alive during the last weekend of June with the return of Pride in the Park, the second annual Two-Spirit powwow and the 12th annual Native POP art market. On Saturday and Sunday, Rapid City's Main Street Square was engulfed in Indigenous culture as Native artists gathered to display and sell their artwork.
Artists came from all walks of life, mostly from local tribes and the Great Plains area in general. “It started from a group of people who felt that there needed to be an art market on this side of the state,” said Raine Nez, Sicangu Lakota and the Native POP executive director. “Beforehand there was one in Sioux Falls and I don’t even know if that’s still running, so that makes it even more critical for us to keep going.
” One artist vending at the market, Tani Gordon, said she gains inspiration from her lived experience. The Sicangu Lakota painter represents her trauma, growth, self-love and resilience through her abstract colorful pieces. Tani Gordon, Sicangu Lakota, came to Rapid City to sell her artwork for a ninth year during Native POP 2024.
Amelia Schafer “I’ve been through a lot in my life, so art is really what helped me and I intuitively draw,” Gordon said. Gordon, who is from the Okreek community on the Rosebud Reservation, has been coming to Native POP .