Kevin Locke

Kevin Locke, known by his Lakota name Tȟokéya Inážiŋ ("The First to Arise"), was a Lakota (Hunkpapa) and Anishinaabe artist and citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who became one of the most influential Indigenous performers of the late twentieth century. Born June 23, 1954, Locke was raised in a family deeply engaged in cultural and civic life. His mother, Patricia Locke, was a noted advocate for American Indian self-determination. He settled on the Standing Rock Reservation in 1966, where his mother, uncle Abraham End-of-Horn, mentor Joe Rock Boy, and other relatives and elders transmitted Lakota values, language, music, and oral traditions. Locke pursued formal education alongside his artistic practice, earning a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of North Dakota and a master's degree in educational administration from the University of South Dakota, while learning traditional flute making and repertory from elders, community memory, and historical recordings at the Library of Congress.

Locke became a pivotal figure in the late-twentieth-century revival of the Lakota and Dakota flute tradition. He learned a hoop-dance practice from Mandan-Hidatsa artist Arlo Good Bear, a tradition that was then endangered. From this foundation, Locke developed what became known as the Hoop of Life—a performance using twenty-eight wooden hoops. As the dance unfolds, he links and balances the hoops into changing forms: flowers, wings, globes, and other figures. The National Endowment for the Arts emphasizes that the work carries deep cultural meaning; Locke used it to communicate unity and the "oneness of humankind," framing the circle as a symbol of continuity and relationship.

Beginning in 1978, Locke carried his dance, flute, song, story, and teaching to audiences across more than ninety countries. Starting in 1980, he served as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Service. His presentations were built as participatory education: audiences encountered specific Lakota and Anishinaabe artistic practices while being invited to consider broader themes of dignity, reciprocity, peace, and shared humanity. He worked extensively with children, public schools, and tribal schools, making his performance accessible to learners while maintaining its cultural integrity and educational purpose.

In 1990, Locke received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' highest honor in folk and traditional arts. He later received First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowships in 2019 and 2021 and a United States Artists Fellowship in 2020. Locke also served as a delegate to the United Nations Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 and appeared as a featured performer at the United Nations Habitat II conference in Turkey in 1996. His advocacy contributed to South Dakota's designation of the traditional flute as the state's official Indigenous musical instrument.

Locke remained an active recording artist and community educator throughout his life. His recordings include *Earth Gift*, *Hoop of Life*, and *Dream Catcher*; he made approximately twelve albums of music and stories. In 2018, he founded the Patricia Locke Foundation to support educational opportunities for underserved children and youth. He died on September 30, 2022. His body of work endures in recordings and films, but its deepest continuity lies in students, collaborators, relatives, and communities who carry the practices forward.