Centennial High School senior highlights Native American community in new mural

The walls of Centennial High School are full of colorful student artwork that celebrates various programs. But until recently, the American Indian Education Program didn't have one.

A mural depicting a buffalo atop a medicine wheel is now underway in the school's main hallway near the gyms and cafeteria. Three students came up with a design. One of them graduated before painting began and another transferred, leaving senior Lexi Sanburg as the project's lead artist.

Although Sanburg, 18, lacked confidence in her artistic abilities, she was the only one willing to take on the task.

"I was kind of like, 'Well, I guess here I go. We're just faking it 'til I make it,'" Sanburg said.

The Centennial High project is one of several efforts launched in recent years to emphasize Native history in Minnesota schools.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community set up a $5 million campaign to fund grants, research and workshops for educators across the state. The tribe disbursed a series of microgrants in March. The Minnesota Historical Society also offered a Native American undergraduate fellowship for years, which was further boosted by a grant from the Mellon Foundation that helped the program expand in 2019.

Centennial High School, about 30 miles north of Minneapolis, enrolls 1,997 students, nearly 2% of whom are Native American, according to enrollment data from the Minnesota Department of Education.

Sanburg took a mural painting class at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, which boosted her confidence in her painting abilities. As a hobby, Sanburg would create artwork that resembled her Native American heritage.

There wasn't any room at home to store her art class projects, so American Indian Education Program Coordinator Stephanie Spencer offered to display the pieces in her classroom.

The mural is part of Sanburg's senior art project. The class is taught under her Dakota art teacher Kevin Gilbertson, who helps her with the project daily. In addition, Sanburg serves as a teaching assistant to Spencer.

Sanburg grew up around the scent of burning sage, a Native tradition her mother kept alive. She felt at home within the Native American Education program, which is what compelled Sanburg to paint the mural.

"If I have this opportunity to make our room seen, why wouldn't I take it?" Sanburg said.

She plans to attend Augsburg University in the fall, and she received a full-ride scholarship to study psychology.

Spencer said members of the senior class of 2022 who brainstormed the design decided it should include a buffalo because one hunt of the prairielands mammal would typically feed a whole community, just as education feeds the Centennial community.

When Sanburg was tapped as the artist for the project, she received nothing but positive reinforcement from the students who worked on the design.

"They really kind of held Lexi in this beautiful little circle of support," Spencer said.

Spencer said Native American teachers and school staff began filling her inbox expressing their gratitude the moment Sanburg stenciled her work on the wall.

"[The mural] makes them proud," Spencer said. "Not so long ago a lot of them weren't proud to be Native."

Spencer said Native American education is often taught in the past tense and lacks lessons about contemporary people. She added the effects of the mural led to more questions about the American Indian Education program at Centennial.

Principal Tom Breuning said he's seen the effects of the mural firsthand.

"I see a sense of pride towards the mural. I see kids walking by and it's that sense of pride," Breuning said.

Sanburg's mural will be completed by the end of May.