News Release
Honoring Project
After a national call for proposals, The Honoring Project announces the selection
of an artist for the All-American Indian Days Memorial. Jon DeCelles from Las
Vegas, Nevada is a member of the Assiniboine Sioux and Gros Ventre tribes. A
master sculptor, DeCelles has won major Indian art exhibition awards. His work
was part of the Imago Mundi Project at the 2014 Venice Biennale and also
Indigenous Brilliance 2012-2015 which traveled to venues throughout Europe. His
sculptures in Daum Crystal are sold at boutiques worldwide.
Mitakuye Oyasin (We Are All Related), the title of the sculpture for the All-
American Indian Days Memorial, honors the unique collaboration from 1953 to
1984 between the townspeople of Sheridan and Native Americans. Their efforts to
eliminate racial discrimination will become a visual public record of their
extraordinary generosity and investment for inter-racial collaboration in Indian
Country.
“This untold Wyoming story tells of local civic and church leaders whose vision to
eliminate racial discrimination against Native Americans inspired townspeople,
who annually welcomed thousands of Native Americans who traveled to Sheridan.
All American Indian Days, a three-day event, honored an Outstanding Indian of
the Year and featured the selection of a Miss Indian America. Remarkably, this effort
was undertaken by a small, rural town in North Central Wyoming, with a
population of 11,000 and preceded the 1964 Civil Rights Act.” said Vivian Arviso,
President of the Honoring Project Board of Directors and a former Miss Indian
America 1960.
The Honoring Project is currently coordinating site preparations for this Memorial
with the City of Sheridan, the Rotary Club, and the Sheridan Public Arts
Committee. The Rotary Park in Sheridan is the setting for the Memorial. An
unveiling of the artwork and dedication of the All-American Indian Days
Memorial will be held in July 2023.
About the Honoring Project
The Honoring Project is a Wyoming non-profit organization to build educational
awareness of the non-Native and Native American collaboration during 1953 to
1984 in Sheridan, Wyoming.
