Greetings Relatives!
Anpetu waste! I am Stephanie Big Eagle. The owner & founder of Thunderbird Rising Studios. I offer traditional handpoke tattoo art and education, empowered tattoo designs, my story - Thunderbird Rising - and my presence via multiple formats: social media, interviews, podcasts, webinars, live speaking engagements, fancy shawl dance, documentaries, modeling, and more.
I am an enrolled member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota Oyate (Yankton Sioux Nation) with Celtic, Nordic, and other Indigenous ancestries.
My story is one of divinely orchestrated exile, miraculously exonerated by Return through my own remembrance - a remembrance birthed from survival alchemized into resilience, empowerment and connection against all odds.
I was intentionally raised with almost no teachings of my Native heritage and culture, and was adopted into an environment that sought to erase my true essence within overwhelming distortion. I was lost in an ancestral and spiritual identity crisis until age 21, when my ancestors started visiting in dreams to share profound visions and prophecy.
These powerful visons and messages awakened long-buried parts of my ancestral lineage, inspiring me to reconnect with my family on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota. At 23, I returned to my Earthly home after 20 years. I then attended my first wacipi, or powwow, sparking the first major shift of my life.
There, as I watched the swirling butterflies - fancy shawl dancers - I promised myself that I would dance like that one day! I also felt at home in my skin for the first time as I looked at my relatives, the Oyate, with the same tanned skin and sharpened features. Thus, my Earthly ancestral return began.
One year later, I joined the circle as a fancy shawl dancer. It was in my blood. No one taught me. I just watched, then danced, and haven't stopped. Dancing helped heal the deep wounds in my soul, and brought me back to myself.
I then poured myself into our history as Native American and Indigenous people. As I discovered the brutal injustices our people endured that left generational and ongoing scars - particularly genocide, broken treaties, prisoner of war camps (reservations), boarding schools, and the outlawing of cultural practices - I channeled my overwhelming rage into Environmental and Indigenous Activism. Most memorably, I stood amidst a global collection of activists at Standing Rock, gathered to protect its sacred sites and resources.
Around the same time, I was introduced to the ancient practice of traditional handpoke tattoo. This artform, along with the sharing of my voice, story, and presence, became my greatest resistance.
I opened my first handpoke tattoo studio in 2021, Thunderbird Rising Studios, which is now adopted by other intentional tattoo artists. I also began travelling internationally to empower through my story, voice, art, culture, and remembrance as an artist.
Receive Thunderbird Rising: A Memoir of Reconnection, Resilience, & Empowerment.
May it remind you that you are never alone, even in your darkest moments.
Most recently, the second major shift of my life occurred: a multidimensional awakening that birthed the Temple of Return. This activation occurred through the remembrance and full acceptance of a primordial Divine Union that anchored my soul back into its original home and unlocked the sacred codes hidden within my being.
Pidamayaye, thank you, for visiting my site!
~Stephanie Big Eagle,
Thunderbird Rising Studios