The Sarah Grandmother’s Knife features a Sarah Grandmother’s Knife at age 10 in 1910. Most photographs of Indigenous people during this time period show Native women in particular as being quiet and stoic and emotionless. Sarah defies those expectations. The photograph that Sarah’s painting is based off of features Sarah gleefully sticking her tongue out at the photographer while adorned in striped leggings and moccasins and beautifully crafted elk tooth dress.
Sarah was born and died on the Crow Reservation in Eastern Montana. She was known as a beloved mother and Kaala (grandmother).