Native artist celebrates heritage for UM’s annual Nike N7-inspired design

MISSOULA – Kaylene Big Knife grew up playing in the hills of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in north central Montana. She remembers running with childhood friends along the sagebrush buttercups, picking juneberries and sledding down hills.

Big Knife, a University of Montana alumna from the Chippewa Cree Tribe, thinks back to those childhood memories as a professional graphic designer and digital illustrator. She specializes in floral art, especially Montana flowers like the sagebrush buttercups from her hometown, which are tattooed on her arms. 

“Buttercups are really meaningful to me because in Rocky Boy I spent most of my life at my grandma’s house in an area called Upper Buttercup. And my mom moved down to a house in Lower Buttercup,” Big Knife said. “I’m from the Buttercup Hills of Rocky Boy.” 

She leaned on her artistic influences to create the Native Griz logo for UM’s third annual campaign inspired by the Nike N7 program that encourages Indigenous youth to join in sports. 

Big Knife’s logo will appear on the Montana men’s and Lady Griz basketball teams' shooting shirts during games this season in the Adams Center. The Griz and Lady Griz also will wear turquoise Nike uniforms, a color of great significance to many Indigenous cultures. 

The Lady Griz game will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, and the men’s game will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. The men’s team also will wear the turquoise uniforms for a game against Northwest Indian College at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10. The upcoming games will be an opportunity for the University to celebrate the contributions of its Native students, employees and student athletes.

“It is privilege to once again host two N7 basketball games in Dahlberg Arena. We appreciate our partnership with Nike and the local tribes in helping honor and recognize our deep ties to Native American culture and history,” said Kent Haslam, UM Director of Athletics. “This heritage is important to our university and to this region, and anytime we have the opportunity to educate ourselves and connect to others, it is a unifying experience. That is the beauty of sport and certainly our goal through sponsoring these N7-inspired events.”

Officially licensed Nike T-shirts and hoodies with Big Knife’s logo already are available for sale at the Go Griz Store, Scheels in Missoula and The M Store. Those stores also are selling other merchandise with the logo including hats, beanies, pint glasses, mugs, tumblers and bags. Licensing proceeds benefit UM’s Kyiyo Pow Wow, one of the nation’s oldest student-run powwows.

Big Knife, who now resides in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, visited UM when the merchandise was released and saw her logo proudly presented in UM’s Go Griz Store. 

“Walking into the UM bookstore and seeing it on the shelves was a very monumental moment in my career,” Big Knife said. 

Her design for the logo has several meaningful elements. Along with sagebrush buttercups, the logo features Chippewa blossoms, a special flower for her tribe, and field chickweeds that are found in Missoula near the UM campus. 

In her tribes’ artistic traditions, many leaves are drawn to look like they are on fire, which influenced how she drew the leaves around the Griz cursive script. She also added in the juneberries that she grew up picking with her friends and family. 

The center of her logo features a rising sun, which represents the warmth of where your heart is and the power of rising through adversity, Big Knife said. 

Big Knife said she was motivated as the first female artist to create a logo for the University's campaign. She put a lot of time into various drafts and even submitted a few extra designs that honor Montana’s Native tribes. Plans are being made to include those additional designs in a separate campaign. 

“Being the first female Native artist for this, I wanted to do my best,” she said. “I’m putting in 110%.” 

Big Knife’s love for graphic design started in grade school, when she first created art on a donated Apple Macintosh computer. At Box Elder High School, she designed posters for class fundraisers and found a summer job at a local print shop. 

After high school, she earned a graphic design degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and returned to Montana, where she graduated from UM in 2017 with a degree in Native American Studies. 

Her recent logo for UM is not the first time her art has been shared around campus. As a student, she made posters and designs for an internship with Experiential Learning and Career Services and for a student group focused on Native language revitalization. 

“I used to put posters around this whole campus,” Big Knife said. “I got to know most of the buildings and the back entrances.” 

Big Knife, who now runs her own business called Kay Big Knife Designs, plans to return to UM for the upcoming basketball games when the teams will wear her logo. She’s looking forward to being welcomed back to campus and recognized for her design. 

“Being on this campus, it’s like a home away from home,” Big Knife said. “I feel like I will always keep coming back to UM. It’s always been good to me.” 

    UM alumna Kaylene Big Knife leaned on her artistic influences to create the Native Griz logo for UM’s third annual campaign inspired by the Nike N7 program that encourages Indigenous youth to join in sports. (UM Photos by Ryan Brennecke)