Wanbli Waunsila Wi Eagle is the 2023-2024 Miss He Sapa Win. She is a proud member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is from the Hunkpapa and Mni Coujou bands of the Thithituwan Lakota, Ihunktuwana band of Waciyena Dakota, and Bde Wakantuwan band of Isanti Dakota. Ms. Eagle is an alumnus of Sitting Bull College—obtaining two associate degrees in 2021. She is currently enrolled in the bachelor’s degree program in Native American Studies at SBC. After graduating, Wanbli plans on enlisting in the United States Army. In the future, she hopes to work for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.

 

When Wanbli was a few months old she began dancing traditional to her grandfather’s singing. As she grew older, she danced fancy shawl and eventually fell in love with the jingle dress. In 2022, during an Iron Woman Special, Wanbli obtained the nickname Maza Win due to dancing 54 songs continuously.

 

At an early age, she was taught by her mother and late grandmother how to bead, sew, and hand quilt. Wanbli began singing behind her father’s drum and at ceremonies at this time. As a young teenager, Ms. Eagle was taught how to butcher wild game, and tan hides, as well as harvest and prepare traditional foods and medicine. Wanbli grew up in the traditional Lakota way of life attending ceremonies, dancing, and singing at powwows, and playing in hand game tournaments across the Midwest. She even was a Dakota 38+2 rider from the time she was 14.

 

Since Wanbli was in middle school she was a member of the National Junior Honor Society, and during high school, she was a member of the Nation Honor Society. She graduated high school a semester early in December 2017 and enrolled in the spring semester of college at SBC. In 2016 Wanbli and her sister were asked to be a part of a video series on the Teen Vogue YouTube channel. Later on, she was asked to open for the Reach at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2019, and for Silk Road at Harvard University in 2020.

 

Ms. Eagle has held all three princess titles for the Standing Rock Community School, was Miss Standing Rock High School, and was recently Miss Standing Rock from 2018-2023. Wanbli’s late grandmother encouraged her to run for Miss He Sapa Win at a young age. In 2006 Wanbli represented her first princess title at Black Hills Powwow and is thankful to represent the Oceti Sakowin as the next Miss He Sapa Win.