New mural in Highland Bridge represents the Dakota creation story
Six teenagers painted the mural with two local artists.
The sounds of the drum circle resonated as people young and old gathered Thursday at Uŋčí Makhá Park in celebration of a new 150-foot-long mural, an ode to the Dakota community in Minnesota.
“Today’s celebration is just a culminating recognition of the completion of this project and an opportunity for us to recognize the artists and the people who made the mural happen and our Dakota relatives who live on this land,” artist Elissa Cedarleaf Dahl said.
St. Paul Parks and Recreation connected Minnesotan artists Missy Whiteman and Cedarleaf Dahl with six high school interns from the city’s Right Track youth employment program to create the mural, “As Above, So Below; Seeing Ourselves in the Creation Story,” at Uŋčí Makhá Park in the new Highland Bridge neighborhood on the site of the former Ford manufacturing plant.
“This is a chance to connect our past with our present with our future and it’s a particular gift that it’s young people who gave it to us,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said during his ribbon-cutting ceremony speech.
The mural is a representation of the Dakota creation story. Its images contain multiple scenes and starts with the péta wakaŋ (sacred fire) and white buffalo calf. The white buffalo calf represents one born this summer in Yellowstone National Park and marks a need for people to come together and care for the earth.
“This creation story is our people and there’s no wrong or right way to tell the story,” Dakota Elder Pamela Halverson said.
Small turtles along the painting of the Bdote then lead to one large snapping turtle that has trees sprouting from its shell, rivers running across it and the sun behind it. The turtle represents Turtle Island, what many Indigenous communities call the North American continent.
“This mural is packed with symbolism,” Cederleaf Dahl said.
Halverson said she shared stories learned from Dakota Elders with the artists as they created the painting. She was considered the cultural and artistic consultant, guiding the artists as they came up with concepts for the piece. Halverson said the name “As above so below,” is representative of the Dakota belief that on earth there are stars and what’s on earth also lives in the cosmos.
“I would have to say my favorite part is the connection between the beginning and the end,” Whiteman said.
As the mural starts with the creation story, different physical elements and lastly the cosmos, the tail end of the mural has portraits of each intern, which they designed and painted themselves. Whiteman, who is of the Northern Arapaho, Kickapoo nations, said their portraits represent how the youth are future leaders and older generations must step aside to let them lead.
“It’s valuable because if we’re talking about the history of first nations people, we have to acknowledge what came first before any of us,” Whiteman said.
Youth interns that worked on the mural include teenagers from across the city: Jayvion “Jay” Bivens, Camille Clyde, Anjila “Sahar” Noori, Kendrick Escobar Santos, Theodore “Theo” Ausland and Sincere Ross McConnell. Together the artists, interns and other community members worked on the mural from June through early October.
“It was really, really fun, a good community and I made friends with all the people here,” Clyde, 16, said.
Whiteman said that as the mural honors the Dakota people, it is also a unification of all people. “It’s valuable because if we’re talking about the history of First Nations people, we have to acknowledge what came first before any of us.”
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