This is Akíchita, Lakota for "warrior."
A face shaped by decades of resistance, memory, and ancestral fire. Each shard in this mosaic is a fragment of survival—a war waged not just with weapons, but with silence, erasure, and the long shadow of history.

He is not just one man—he is the archetype of the protector. A living myth. A guardian of land, language, and spirit.

This piece is part of my ongoing visual mythology series: a sacred cycle of portraits that speak to the collective human story through the truth and presence.

In honoring Akíchita, I honor all who carry forward tradition in the face of attempted forgetting.

Not just surviving—enduring with dignity.