Helen Hardin (May 28, 1943 – June 9, 1984) (Tewa name: Tsa-sah-wee-eh, which means "Little Standing Spruce") was a Native American painter.

[2] She started making and selling paintings, participated in the University of Arizona's Southwest Indian Art Project and was featured in Seventeen magazine, all before she was 18 years of age.

Creating art was a means of spiritual expression that developed from her Roman Catholic upbringing and Native American heritage.

She created contemporary works of art with geometric patterns based upon Native American symbols and motifs, like corn, katsinas, and chiefs.

[4] Hardin was raised by her artistic mother and her family at the Santa Clara Pueblo and she went to school and lived among the Anglo world for much of her life.

[5] As her career matured and she gained confidence, Hardin became known for painting complex works that combined colorful images and symbols from her Native American heritage with modern abstract art techniques.

Her work frequently incorporated images of women, chiefs, kachinas and designs from pueblo pottery, and integrated modern elements as her career advanced.

For instance, the paintings of kachinas and blanketed chiefs integrated geometric patterns made with drafting templates, rulers and protractors.

[6] She was filmed in 1976 for a series on American Indian artists for Public Broadcasting System (PBS), the only woman painter included.

The cultivation and consumption of corn was so central to the pueblo culture that it was "... a living entity with a body similar to man's in many respects ...the people built its flesh into their own."

[12] Hardin was commissioned to create children's book illustrations for Clarke Industries and design coins for Franklin Mint's History of the American Indian series.

[5] Hardin's work was part of Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting (2019–21), a survey at the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center.