Sarah Ortegon HighWalking

Early life and education Ortegon Highwalking was born in Denver, one of 12 children. As a child, she spent summers on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. She began attending powwows at age three, and learned jingle dress dance through observation. After graduating from university, she attended the National Outdoor Leadership School which enabled her to travel to Alaska. There she hiked, for several months off-trail in the Chugack Mountains and also sea kayaked. She later became an expedition leader for the school.

Visual art She primarily creates beadwork on hide and painted in acrylic. She performed at the opening of Jeffrey Gibson's exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Denver Art Museum, among other venues. According to the Denver Art Museum, her work "embraces the resilience of Indigenous people and acknowledges the ways in which they exist in the modern world."

Dance Ortegon HighWalking performs in a jingle dress, an experience she says "feels like there’s an inner spirit that is dancing with the regalia". The jingle dress traditions originated with the Anishinaabe people; she learned this type of dancing from other dancers at powwows since she was a child. She has also performed the jingle dance at Lincoln Center in New York City and most recently at the Venice Biennale. She contributed a beaded cradleboard which she had made for her son, a video of her dancing jingle dress dance, and four paintings of her jingle dresses, each representing one of the seasons.

A video of Ortegon HighWalking dancing jingle dress was included in Jeffrey Gibson's exhibit "the space in which to place me" at the United States pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Personal life She is married to Jason HighWalking. Their son, Aenohe, was born in 2023.