Sarah Ortegon HighWalking

Sarah Ortegon HighWalking is a Native American visual artist, dancer, and actor. She is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation and a Northern Arapaho descendant.

Her work has been presented at the Denver Art Museum, and she danced at the opening of Jeffrey Gibson's installation at the 60th Venice Biennale, in which she was also the subject of video art by Gibson.

Early life and education
Ortegon Highwalking was born in Denver, one of 12 children. As a child, she spent summers on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

Ortegon received a BA degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. After graduating from university, she attended the National Outdoor Leadership School which enabled her to travel to Alaska. There she hiked, for several months off-trail in the Chugack Mountains and also sea kayaked. She later became an expedition leader for the school.

Career
She primarily creates beadwork on hide and painted in acrylic. She performed at the opening of Jeffrey Gibson's exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Denver Art Museum, among other venues. According to the Denver Art Museum, her work "embraces the resilience of Indigenous people and acknowledges the ways in which they exist in the modern world."

Ortegon HighWalking performs in a jingle dress, an experience she says "feels like there’s an inner spirit that is dancing with the regalia". Her contribution to the exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts includes paintings of jingle dresses and a beaded cradleboard. The jingle dress traditions originated with the Anishinaabe people; she learned this type of dancing from other dancers at powwows since she was a child. She has also performed the jingle dance at Lincoln Center in New York City and most recently at the Venice Biennale.

As an actor she had roles in the television series 1883 and Jamestown, and has performed in the play Black Elk Speaks.

Honors
In 2013, Ortegon HighWalking was named Miss Native American USA. Following this, she began a career in acting. This allowed her to engage in a cultural exchange with Guatemala and Moldova, where she danced.

In 2024, the National Museum of Women in the Arts announced her as a "Wyoming Woman Artist to Watch", and she was selected as a "Global Woman to Watch."

Collections
Ortegon HighWalking's beadwork on hide, Home Is Where the Heart Is, is held in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum.