Don Kakaygeesick

Great-grandson of Everlasting Sky

Meet Don.

Don’s father was the only son of Kakaygeesick’s only son. Born in Warroad, Minnesota, to Florence and Robert Kakaygeesick, Don is the fifth of nine children. He lives in Warroad, Minnesota.

I took this photograph of Don in 2017. I first met him after my mother died in 2014 when I returned to Lake of the Woods, where my mother grew up and I spent my childhood summer vacations. I hadn’t been back in more than 40 years. I’ve been going back nearly every summer since.

Don spent the earliest years of his childhood with his great-grandfather, Kakaygeesick, and has generously shared many of his memories and family stories with me. An accomplished artist, Don received the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council’s Northwest Star Award in 2021.

In this painting by Donald Kakaygeesick, notice the object in black to the right of the face in the lower half of the composition. Three white dots between two thin stripes adorn the bowl of this sacred pipe. The heavy black stone from which this pipe is carved is found only here on the border which split the Kakaygeesick family in two.