Colleen Cutschall

Lakota artist and art historian, Colleen Cutschall was selected as the designer and project manager for the Spirit Warriors sculpture. Cutschall was born at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, US, and grew up in the Black Hills. She is now a permanent resident of Eden, Manitoba, Canada. Cutschall entered into the final phase of creation and installation of the sculpture in May 2002 when the National Park Service announced their request for proposal. The basic sculpture concept, content and style were previously determined by the winning design in the 1996 National Design Competition. Design details, materials and methods were then left to the successful artist applicant in the final stage who would carry out the intent of the juried design/concept. The large earthwork, in which the sculpture is a central feature, was part of the overall winning design. The earthwork is a separate project with the National Park Service they awarded the construction to a general contractor. The memorial sculpture emerges from the drawing produced by Cutschall that is then enlarged to 1¼ life size and translated into bronze.

Who’s Sisterwolf? ~ Colleen Cutschall's CV ~ Colleen signing the sculpture

Colleen Cutschall 

Collins Studio

Collins Studio is situated in Glenside, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Christopher S. Collins, owner, specializes in custom sculpture, portraiture, mould-making, casting and sculpture restoration. The "Spirit Warriors" sculpture team included Chris, his brother John and cousins Andrew Wager and Mike Collins. The team was responsible for a scale maquette, construction drawings / structural coordination, design consultation and ultimately the full scale "Spirit Warriors" model. The model was constructed of a tubular metal armature wrapped in foam and plaster-dipped burlap. The sculpture was developed between May and October of 2002. The full scale model arrived at Eagle Bronze Foundry, in Lander, WY on November 1, 2002. It was then cut up, moulds were prepared for solid wax casts that were then cast in bronze by way of the "lost wax" process. The completed sculpture was delivered to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in mid-April 2002.

Due to John and Alison's early involvement in the aboriginal memorial, they had a strong desire to see the original design intent carried through to completion. This interest led them to begin researching a team that could produce the featured sculpture. Being the competition winners did not guarantee their being able to participate in the production of the sculpture. In fact, it prevented them from taking the lead role in the effort. It was John who proposed the idea of assembling a team to his brother Chris (Collins Studio), artist/professor Colleen Cutschall and Eagle Bronze Foundry.

John R. Collins, architectural designer, inspects the earthwork memorial progress in July 2002. John and wife, Alison J. Towers, were the winners of the 1997 National Design competition for the aboriginal memorial.

National Park Service Announcement re: Aboriginal Memorial Design.

Christopher Collins, sculptor, created the full scale model of the Spirit Warriors sculpture. The model has a metal armature wrapped in gauze and plaster and then modeled over in sculptor's wax.

The full scale model arrived at the Eagle Bronze foundry November 1, 2002 to be cut up and moulds made for bronze casting.  More in Scenes... and more on the bronze casting

Team Members continued...

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John R. Collins on site

Chris Collins and
assistant, Will Kennedy in front
of large scale model