Community members gather in Edgewater to clean mural honoring Native Americans

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Drivers may notice an extra sparkle in a mural near the lakefront honoring Native Americans after community members cleaned it Thursday.

Using sponges and rags, volunteers washed away dirt and grime from “Indian Land Dancing.”

Cynthia Weiss is one of the artists who worked with members of the American Indian community to create the mosaic in 2009.

“Horizontal family tree that goes into the hair, goes into the braid of mother earth and she's holding seven generations,” Weiss described part of the mural.

Mary Jane O’Brien Askenette got emotional as she looked at pictures of her Aunt Peggy and other elders transferred onto the ceramic tiles.

“I see the faces of people who came here after relocation to try to make a new life in the city of Chicago,” Askenette said.

Members of the American Indian community gathered for a sage smudging ceremony near the brightly-colored mural.

The cleaning comes 15 years to the day after then Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated it.

Nora Lloyd is an Objiwe photographer who not only took many of the pictures of elders in the bricolage mosaic, but drove some to help with its installation. She wants the public to see them in the work and remember that they are on Indian land.

The American Indian Health Service of Chicago and the Chicago Public Art Group worked with the city to organize the cleaning.

The two organizations are also starting to fundraise to restore parts of the mural.

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