Yeneini3i’ 3o3outei’i | Four Hills of Life: A Mural Collaboration with Arapahoe School Students

On a Wednesday this October, I sat looking out the windshield at fall colors against a sky of rainy, blue-gray clouds. Robin Cameron of Jackson Hole Public Art and I were waiting in a car full of more than a dozen pizzas keeping an eye out for a bus of over 30 students from Arapahoe School to arrive at Garaman Park in Jackson, Wyoming. In less than an hour, the students would be crowded around the mayor of Jackson, giggling at the giant pair of scissors she used to cut a ribbon for Jackson Hole Public Art's newest Pathways mural, Yeneini3i’ 3o3outei’i  |  Four Hills of Life. 

Arapahoe School fifth and seventh grade students, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Colleen Friday, and representatives from Jackson Hole Public Art cut the ribbon at the mural installation ceremony. (Photo GYC/Craig Benjamin)

On October 4, 2023, the four-foot by 80-foot mural was unveiled in the Garaman underpass in Jackson, Wyoming. Students from Arapahoe School and Jackson Hole High School, Northern Arapaho Business Councilwoman Hischase, Jackson Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson, Arapahoe School Board Chairman Patrick Moss, Jackson Hole Community Pathways Coordinator, Jackson Hole Public Art Director Carrie Geraci and Project Manager Robin Cameron, and local community members were in attendance. 

The community mural project was proposed to me by the Jackson Hole Public Art director and project manager to collaborate with a Wind River Reservation School. So, through my youth outreach work as a GYC Wind River conservation organizer, I partnered with the Arapahoe Schools Art Teacher Adrienne Vetter to work and collaborate with students throughout the mural process. 

The design incorporates imagery provided by fifth and seventh grade students at Arapahoe School. I led students in a brainstorming activity as a large group and then students sketched images on long strips of paper. In April, I compiled parts of the sketched imagery into a cohesive mural and submitted it to the Jackson Hole Pathways mural project for approval. Once approved, blank mural panels were transported from Jackson to Arapahoe School, where students collaboratively painted the mural with myself and Adrienne Vetter during the summer school session.

The Arapaho lifeway of the four hills of life (yeneini3i’ 3o3outei’i) is the main organizing concept with the 80-foot mural being visually divided into four 20-foot sections. Northern Arapaho seasonal and life ways mirrored and were interdependently tied to the buffalo. In mythical time, buffalo were human persons and a source of knowledge about the natural world and our movements through it. The first hill of life is birth/childhood, associated with the color yellow and the direction of east. In the mural, this is shown as when a yellow calf is born in the springtime and the sky reflects colors of sunrise.  

The second hill of life is youth and is the time of doing, associated with the color red and the direction of south. This is shown in the mural as a summer tipi camp, where bands of Arapaho people have come together to gather, hunt, and participate in ceremonies and celebrations. In the first and second hills of life, Arapaho people are expected to quietly listen, observe, and learn from those who are older than us.

The third hill of life is adulthood, associated with the color black and the direction of west. The third hill is the “age when you give it back.” This is the time when we start to give back goods, knowledge, and other forms of value to others. As adults this is the time where we start to speak up and advocate for our community.  

The fourth hill of life is the elder stage associated with the color white and the direction of north. Arapaho people understand that culture is embedded in our stories and language and elders are at the center as the holders of all knowledge.     

Although this mural is in a linear format to fit the physical Pathways space, the four hills of life - like the seasons - unfold in a circle. Children and elders are seen as close to each other. This section of the mural includes visual references to Arapaho stories about the Bear’s Lodge (Devil’s Tower), seven sister stars (Big Dipper), and the origin of the Milky Way.

It was good to see the mural installed; watching the students' reactions their first time seeing it in the space was even better. Their astonishment, pride, and watching them pose in front of portions of the mural was great. It was good to have the students attend the ribbon cutting because it allowed them the opportunity to fully experience the mural process from beginning to end. If you are in Jackson, be sure to go see the mural in person in the Garaman underpass. It will be featured for three years. The mural panels will then be removed and sent back to Arapahoe School for permanent display.   

—Colleen Friday