School mural of Chief Buffalo

Chief Buffalo remembered in mural

By Julie BucklesIn 1852, 93-year-old Chief Buffalo paddled, walked and rode trains from Madeline Island to Washington D.C. to meet with President Millard Fillmore, setting the framework for the Treaty of 1854, a treaty that permanently kept the Ojibwe in their Lake Superior homeland.

One hundred fifty-eight years later, as snow drifted down and the wind blew the flags of the United States and of Red Cliff outside the Bayfield School, the Red Cliff and school community dedicated a mosaic mural of Chief Buffalo, conceptualized and created by Buffalo's relation, seventh-grade student Lane Gokee.Comment:  For more on Native murals, see Mural for Slain Aboriginal Women and First Mural in Cultural Corridor.

Below:  "Lane Gokee, left, Damon DeFoe and Chris Gamble stand in front of the mural they created last year as part of a school project. The seventh-grade boys worked with artist Robin Murphy to mosaic the face of Chief Buffalo and the sign of his Loon Clan. Bizhiki is the Ojibwe word for Buffalo.The dedication of the Chief Buffalo Mural was held Nov. 22 in the Bayfield school cafeteria followed by a Thanksgiving feast."