Indigenous Mural, Yatika Starr Fields, 2020

 The first of its kind at the University of Missouri, the Indigenous Mural aims to acknowledge and celebrate the Native Peoples who practice culture, ceremony, and life on this sacred and ancestral ecology of lands and waters colonially known as “Missouri.” The mural is a visual storyboard of past, present, and future Indigenous experiences. The constellation of color, movement, cultural symbols, and storytelling are intended to encourage the viewer to see slices of their own journey within the piece. The river streaming through the mural connects the many Indigenous backgrounds of students at Mizzou, as well as the diverse tribal nations that make up Turtle Island (North America). Indigenous relationships with waterways have been important since time immemorial, and rivers and water often represent life in creation stories. The Four Directions circle, for which the Indigenous student organization at Mizzou is named, anchors the mural with white, red, yellow, and black. The large circle represents the four directions (north, east, west, south) and related elements of life such as fire, wisdom, introspection, mental health, earth, and spiritual wellness. 

Wahzhazhe or 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 (Osage) people have old and long ties to this area and identify home lands and waters they belong to here in "Missouri." Ponca, U-Mo'n-Ho'n (Omaha), and Kanza (Kaw) nations also have longstanding relationships with "Missouri." There are numerous other nations who were/are impacted by removals, reservations, and colonial borders in this area, including Nutachi (Missouria), Jiwere (Otoe), Othâkîwa/Meskwaki (Sac and Fox), and Báxoǰe (Ioway) peoples. As a land-grant institution and direct beneficiary of tribal lands, the University and the state of Missouri have a tumultuous history with Indigenous Peoples rooted in colonial policies and practices of genocide and cultural erasure. 

Yatika Starr Fields

Yatika Starr Fields is a painter and muralist from Oklahoma and is currently living and working in Tulsa in conjunction with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. After graduating high school in Stillwater, Oklahoma, he attended the Art Institute of Boston . While attending the Art Institute from 2000 to 2004, he became interested in graffiti aesthetics, which has been integral to his knowledge and process, along with landscape painting, and continues to influence his large-scale projects and studio works. After a decade in New York City, he has most recently spent time in Seattle where the energy of urban life inspires and feeds the creative force in his artwork. Yatika’s artistic endeavors have taken him around the world to work with communities, institutions, and museums as part of a continuous dialogue to help broaden views of contemporary Native Art. He seeks to influence his viewers to rethink and reshape their relationships to the world around them.

His compositions are often spontaneous and left open for interpretation so that multiple stories can be drawn from them. His kaleidoscopic imagery, with its dynamic pop, symbolism and culture aesthetic, reference both historical and contemporary themes- tied together with traditional affinity but provoked by general concerns of world differences. His canvasses and murals are alive with movement and filled with images that rely on vibrant colors and swirling patterns to build narratives that carry the eye. In recent years his work has shifted to represent contemporary politics tied together with historical and traditional contexts. He achieves this through explorations of landscapes and representational motifs of culture and heritage mixed with pop references of earlier works. His compositions are colorful and dynamic, leaving the viewer to move the eye and find elements relating to their own journey; in doing so, an orchestrated landscape of unbounded possibilities is revealed. 

Four Directions Indigenous Peoples and Allies 

Four Directions Indigenous Peoples & Allies is a Native American student organization at the University of Missouri that seeks to cultivate and support Native/Indigenous cultures, peoples, topics, and places. The organization was established in 1986 and is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students who hold a common vision of contributing to a diverse and thriving campus community through unique cultural, political, and social activities connected to indigeneity. Combined with the years of work and support from prior generations of Four Directions members, the student group spent three years planning and one year gathering funds for the Indigenous Mural. Four Directions believes restoring relationships, countering colonialism, and building community begins with the core elements of communication, responsibility, reciprocity, and trust, all of which this mural represents. Four Directions hopes this dynamic piece of art will create a visual dialogue about the deeply complex and unique history of this land and its people, inviting the re-telling of histories, perspectives, and experiences of Indigenous Peoples of the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and globally. 

Four Directions Indigenous Peoples and Allies and Missouri Student Unions Public Arts would like to thank each of the donors for their gracious contributions in helping to promote Indigenous presence and cultures at the University of Missouri—Columbia.