Over the course of more than a year I traveled several times to Four Winds Tribal School and Cankdeska Cikana Community College at Fort Totten to set up brick making stations.

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We began the process by soaking shredded paper with water and then packing the slurry into metal forms to shape the paper into bricks.

 

I invited the brick-makers to write down memories, poems, drawings or prayers and then add them to the slurry to be encapsulated in the bricks that would be part of the wall.

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On several occasions participants smudged the bricks with sage or added sage to the brick mixture. In these ways the people blessed the wall and infused it with their thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams.

 

The spiritual, physical and emotional characteristics of the material give the structure its power.