Oglala Lakota Artist
DONALD F. MONTILEAUX
Yellowbird


Born January 3, 1948 in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Don is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. He attended college in Spearfish, South Dakota, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He began his professional career at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in 1977, and began aggressively pursuing his artistic dream alongside his career in 1980. Don's work has literally spanned the globe.


He has received nearly 20 awards and commissions and attended over 25 major art shows throughout his artistic career. His art is illustrated on the cover of six books, work is included in numerous private collections as well as public, and has been featured artist in art galleries in New Mexico, Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, as well as South Dakota. Don has been active in various organizations, and has been the topic of numerous publications and articles. In 1994, the pinnacle of his artistic career was an invitation from the SD School of Mines & Technology SKILL Program, to create a work of art that eventually became a part of the payload aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

On March 2, 1995, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the Endeavor carrying the artwork, orbited the earth 262 times at a mean altitude of 190 nautical miles and speed of 17,500 miles per hour, traveling a total of 6,892,836 miles in a 16 day mission.

Primarily a self-taught artist, Montileaux received 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. He also credits his personal friend and mentor, the late Herman Red Elk, as his primary artistic influence.

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