{"id":5047,"date":"2026-06-04T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/equity\/?page_id=5047"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:48:15","slug":"west","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/equity\/indigenous-land-campus-mural\/west\/","title":{"rendered":"West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turn to the right again, to the pillars with black paint. It is west, the adult life stage, evening. The sun is setting, and the sky is fiery reds and pinks, with night approaching. It is autumn, the time to start slowing down and reflecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main figure is dancing again, but more slowly in this season than the fancy dancer. She’s wearing a jingle dress for the healing jingle dance. Beaulieu tells the jingle dress’s origin story. “A man whose daughter was sick saw this dress with these jingles, and it made a swishing noise,” she says. “So the spirits told him that this noise was going to heal his daughter. So they figured out how to use coins to mimic the swooshing noise. That’s where the sounds, the vibration, the repetition come from.” The dancer holds a fan made of sacred eagle feathers and wears moccasins (in Ojibwe, makizin) chosen to strengthen the connection to the earth. The theme of healing is woven across the mural, but especially present here: Beaulieu sketched the dancers and flowers on sheet music paper\u2014a nod to the healing made possible through dance and music, through the frequency of the jingles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although no pillars include words, this section’s storytelling also draws on Land Back activism and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) crisis, with the MMIWR movement’s red handprint added to one pillar.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n \n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n \n\t\t \t
\n\t\t\tEvening sunset (right) and Dakota textile pattern (left)<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n \n\t\t \t
\n\t\t\tJingle dress dancer<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n \n\t\t \t
\n\t\t\tMissing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n \n\t\t \t
\n\t\t\tAnishinaabe floral patterns<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n \n\t\t \t
\n\t\t\tBirch tree (left) and Anishinaabe floral patterns (right)<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t <\/swiper-gallery>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Dive Deeper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n