Project Contributors

THE BACK STORY: The Chief Buffalo Memorial mural project was an idea rooted in the vision of some of Chief Buffalo's eldest descendants - namely Robert Buffalo (Red Cliff Tribe Hereditary Chief) and Henry Buffalo Jr. - as well as the Duluth Indigenous Commission. It grew as a pilot project in 2019 through Zeitgeist Community and their efforts to improve the connections between Canal Park/The Lake Walk, the parks, and downtown Duluth. The project was well-received by the community and blessed in ceremony with a feast and community painting session at Gitchi-Ode Akiing - so much so that the Indigenous Commission worked to push through another iteration of the project, the completion of all remaining walls. The artists collaborating on the project are Moira Villiard, Michelle Defoe, Awanigiizhik Bruce, Sylvia Houle, and Mana Bear Bolton and her partner Conor Fairbanks. We had a powwow this year to celebrate the progress made this year on the project and hope to keep re-activating the space!

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THE FUNDING: A project of this scale at full cost could easily have a budget of $100,000 -$200,000, and in a larger city I think it might have been possible to raise those funds. I think another issue that this project has brought to light is the lack of significant financial resources for large-scale artwork in Greater Minnesota. I actually received feedback on one of the grants that I didn't get through a Minnesota funder, which has motivated me ever since I read it: "cool murals. For me, not really groundbreaking approach or methodology". That's a word for word response on my application. The panelists were largely from major cities, so afterwards I guess I wasn't surprised that there didn't seem to be any understanding of how privileged that statement actually sounds coming from somebody who's maybe never worked in a place like Duluth or Greater MN. I think it outlined a bias that's relatively common with certain funders in our state, where artists who do community work are held to a standard that dictated by larger, more arts-privileged cities. A mural in LA or NYC might not seem like a groundbreaking activity, there's plenty of public art in those places. Even telling Indigenous stories or history might not be "groundbreaking" where those stories are already visible. But at one point or another, murals were groundbreaking tools in all of these major cities - they were methods of activism that pushed the limits of visibility and that opened the floor for actual arts systems to be created. We don't have that here (yet), we are just starting out and many community members, especially BIPOC folks, are trying to set things up in a good way. And I invite any major city panelist to try their luck at navigating the systems we do have in place.

THE GOOD STUFF: As many obstacles as we faced, there was also a huge amount to be grateful for in this process, and we're proceeding to next year with out heads held high. Can we talk about how gifted the team is? Or how amazing the community turnout has been? There's been days where the number of Indigenous people hanging out in the mural space has far outnumbered the number of tourists! We've had folks who are unsheltered and who sleep on parts of the Lake Walk come and hang out with us and offer feedback and encouragement for the project. We have regulars from all different backgrounds come back to visit, some of them visiting nearly every day. One of our frequent Ojibwe visitors calls the mural site his "temple", and tells us all the ways he finds healing in artwork that's coming to life (and also has offered critique!). We have a documentary that will hopefully be produced in the next year that will explore Chief Buffalo's legacy and the significance of these murals to the community by Indigenous filmmaker Sequoia Hauck. We had countless volunteers, as young as age 2 and as old as .... well, we don't ask age! lol But we've had both elders and children help us along the way. We have visions for reintroducing Indigenous plant life to the area. There's been grad photos taken on site, there's been school groups coming to learn about Chief Buffalo, there's been tourists from all over the world learning about Native American people for the first time, and emerging artists who've come to ask questions about the process. We have so much to be thankful for, and all of this -- all of this is groundbreaking in a space that was once without identity and quite unremarkable.

FUNDERS: The Chief Buffalo Mural Project is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Aspects of the project were also funded in part by the Anishinaabe Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, as well as the Henry and Sarah Wheeler Historical Awareness Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.

Moira Villiard is a fiscal year 2021 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Portions of this activity were made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

I was also selected as a Waterers Future Building award recipient this year, and you can bet that was also a fund I dipped into for this project. The Duluth Public Arts Commission also made a major financial contribution, which helped pay our artists. Our biggest contributor to credit, however, is the AICHO Galleries / American Indian Community Housing Organization through The Bush Foundation Community Creativity Cohort 2. Huge shoutout to them for the no-strings-attached support we received and for honoring the vision of this project in its entirety! Additionally, the Duluth Art Institute is sponsoring much of the 2022 completion of the walls.

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Page by Suenary Philavanh

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