Native American Club

Thursday, February 17th, 2022 Opinion

Native American club mural

Madelyn Conley

Deputy Feature Editor

It took four years to finish, but the new Native American Club mural is now being displayed in the science wing next to classroom 301.

I’ve been a part of the club for two years now and our president of three years, senior LeMonie Hutt, has been here since the beginning of this project.

“My freshman year, Native American Club was super small and had like three solid members, and that’s kinda how it went my sophomore and junior year too, and then there was the pandemic which made it difficult to get people to create this mural,” Hutt recalls.

I have been working on this project for two years, and I agree that the work put into this mural was tremendous. We would meet after school, on the weekends, during school breaks and at lunch.

While it was hard work, it was an enjoyable experience.

“We had a lot of different people come together to help us, even some who weren’t a part of Native American club who just wanted to help,” Hutt said.

“It was a community of people that really just wanted to be there and wanted to make the mural and were volunteering to put the time in to create something that was powerful,” senior Meadow Jennings said.

She’s not a member of the club but was a part of the group of people who came to help support us through this process.

We played music, learned about Native American culture, painting and made new friends. Our advisor,

Korby Skoglund, was a tremendous help and taught us everything we needed to know about acrylic paint and mixing colors.

“My favorite part besides drawing it out was the last bit of it when everybody was coming together to finish it out. Everybody was doing pieces of it and critiquing each other and helping each other and it was just awesome. All of a sudden, the canvas was a lot brighter because of the amount of work people put into it,” Skoglund said.

This mural not only represents our Native American Club but also the culture and history of the Native tribes in Humboldt.

From our depiction of the houses, plants and tools, we made sure to paint a scene that would resemble the true conditions that these tribes lived in and continue to utilize in ceremonies and their ways of life.

“My favorite part was seeing everyone come together and work on this project. A lot of people who weren’t Native American asked questions about different village sites, so I got to share some cultural history while making the mural,” Hutt said.

Even though I am Native American myself, I feel that my knowledge about my culture is limited. However, I learned a lot while working on the mural.

I am also not an artist, so having the opportunity to be educated on different ways of painting was beneficial.

“I'm not very talented at painting so the actual art was the hardest part,” said Native American Club member and sophomore Sasha Neyra, expressing a similar message.

Considering none of the members of our club consider themselves to be artists, we’re all extremely proud of the outcome.

“It’s implementing more inclusiveness on campus and having Native American representation in a way that everyone can enjoy and see. It definitely was a long

Madelyn Conley/PEPPERBOX The Native American Club mural sits in the science wing next to room 301 process, but I did find it really enjoyable,” Hutt said.

Hutt’s feelings were echoed by her fellow creators. “It will make people more aware of the community in general and our club,” Neyra said.

“I hope it’ll bring some awareness and be a piece of art that triggers thought and conversation and overall awareness about Indigenous people and Native tribes,” Jennings said. “It’s my people. It represents the people of this area. These are our local people,” Skoglund said. I hope people feel drawn to the mural and actually stop to notice not only the art but the message behind it. This unique and special project is important to all the members of N.A.C., and we hope it is equally important to students, staff and the surrounding community.