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Pioneering Native Actress Dawn Little Sky Leaves Lasting Legacy
18 Nov
Summary
- Husband was actor Eddie Little Sky, one of first Native men in film/TV
- Acted in films like A Man Called Horse and Little Big Man
- Received South Dakota's Indian Living Treasure Award in 2005
Dawn Little Sky, a renowned Native American actress, passed away on October 24th, 2025 at the Monument Health Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota. She was 95 years old.
Dawn's husband was the late actor Eddie Little Sky, who was one of the first Native men to play Native roles on film and television. Eddie's credits included the 1970 films A Man Called Horse and Little Big Man, as well as several episodes of the classic TV series Gilligan's Island, where he spoke the Siouan language Lakota.
The couple acted together on various projects, including episodes of The Magical World of Disney, Gunsmoke, Have Gun -- Will Travel, and Daniel Boone, as well as in feature films such as Chief Crazy Horse (1955), Cimarron (1960), Duel at Diablo (1966), and Journey Through Rosebud (1972).
Born in 1930 in Fort Yates, North Dakota, Dawn lived on the Standing Rock Reservation as a child and later attended Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas. It was there that she met Eddie, who affectionately called her the "Ava Gardner of Fort Yates." The two married in Roswell, New Mexico, while on the rodeo trail, and eventually settled in California, where Dawn worked as an actress and artist.
In the late 1970s, Dawn and Eddie moved to South Dakota, where she served as the director of a cultural center in Eagle Butte and taught art and culture. Eddie passed away in 1997 at the age of 71. In 2005, Dawn was honored with South Dakota's prestigious Indian Living Treasure Award for her contributions to the arts and preservation of Native heritage.
