{"id":5069,"date":"2026-06-03T14:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/equity\/?page_id=5069"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:49:33","slug":"north","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/equity\/indigenous-land-campus-mural\/north\/","title":{"rendered":"North"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turn to the right one more time, to the pillars with white in the background. The lake is frozen now and covered with snow. It’s winter, and it’s dark, with a full moon glowing above an elder. She’s a traditional dancer, slower than the other two. The traditional dresses are heavy because they’re typically full hide, Beaulieu says, and the beadwork adds more weight. She holds a fan with an eagle feather in her hair. “The grandmother holds the family together\u2014everything together,” Beaulieu says. “Women in our societies made the decisions because we were the most grounded, and we were the life-givers. This woman represents coming back to tradition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll also see the fourth appearance of a birch tree, now in the dark shadows. Along with land and water, birch bark (in Ojibwe, wiigwaas) is present in all four groups of pillars because of its significance to the Dakota and Indigenous way of life. “Birch bark is how we made all of our containers and our canoes,” Beaulieu says. “You can boil water in a birch bark basket\u2014you can put it right over the fire and it won’t catch. It’s how we carried things; it’s how we caught maple syrup. In the north woods, we lived off this.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tDakota textile pattern <\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\tElder dressed in full hide<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\tNight sky lit by moonlight<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\tOjibwe floral pattern <\/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