"Looking Beyond One's Self" depicts three American Indians looking beyond the immediate horizon and toward a vision of the future. Don Montileaux was commissioned by South Dakota Mines to paint this work, symbolizing the desire for young American Indians to reach beyond themselves toward the stars and their dreams.

The first Native American astronaut, John Herrington, took the original artwork into space with him in 1995. The original work is now on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.