Marlena Myles is a self-taught Native American (enrolled Spirit Lake Dakota & also of Mohegan and Muscogee descent) artist located in St Paul, Minnesota. Her art brings modernity to Indigenous history, languages and oral traditions while using the land as a teacher. Growing up on her traditional Dakota homelands here in the Twin Cities, she enjoys using her artwork to teach Minnesotans of all backgrounds the Indigenous history of this place we call home.

Her professional work includes children’s books, augmented reality, murals, fabrics, animations and has shown her fine art in galleries such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Museum of Russian Art, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art to name a few.  In 2022, she created the Google Doodle for Native American Heritage Month (November) to celebrate North American Indigenous Stickball.

She has installed three site-specific augmented reality public art installations: the Dakota Spirit Walk (Saint Paul), the Sacred Hoop Walk (Minnesota Landscape Arboretum) and the Wodakota Walk (Caponi Art Park). She owns a Dakota publishing company, Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions, to create a wider platform that educates and honors the culture, language and history of Dakota people. In 2023, she was awarded the Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship, Joyce Award, Rise25 Mozilla Honoree and as a 2024 ALL ARTS Artist in Resident she directed and wrote her first documentary called Realms of Resilience.