Poplar’s Irizarry Sees Art Published

Artwork by Poplar’s Tiffanie Irizarry has been selected to grace the cover of the Tribal College Journal’s Spring 2022 edition. The art and story are available online at tribalcollegejournal.org.

Irizarry is Ihanktowan Dakota Sioux/Puerto Rican and grew up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation where she is an enrolled member. She received a bachelor’s of arts degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., last year.

“The cover photo is of Chief He Dog, in charcoal on paper,” said Irizarry. “It is an unrelated drawing I did in 2020 but I showed it to the magazine editor, who picked the winner of the contest and he decided to feature that on the cover.”

The image will accompany a story about the Sicangu Lakota leader Hollow Horn Bear, discussing the leader’s life and his participation in a delegation of Native leaders who paraded through the streets of Washington, D.C., to commemorate the presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Horn Bear contracted pneumonia at the event and died several days after the event. Despite being highly regarded during his time, Horn Bear has been nearly completely forgotten outside the Lakota Nation.

Irizarry encourages local students to pursue arts eduction, particularly Native students interested in attending one of 32 fully accredited Tribal Colleges and Universities in the United States. These programs include 181 associate degree programs at 23 TCUs, 40 bachelor’s degree programs at 11 TCUs, and five master’s degree programs. “TCUs are great because they may have their own scholarship and CIB grant,” said Irizarry. “There’s a lot of scholarships, it’s possible to get your education, you never know until you try!”