It’s night, and the first floor of the building is dark and deserted. But as you make your way up the stairs, the pounding of Native American drums begins to echo through the hallways and the faint smell of turpentine enters the air. On the third floor the drums get louder, the turpentine scent stronger. Dim bulbs in a large room reveal a thin, wiry man with long gray hair and a narrow, lined face kneeling on the floor with a paintbrush. A tape player drums in the middle of the room.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Robert Wapahi is a member of the Santee Sioux, a teacher at Saint Augustine’s Center for American Indians, and the unofficial artist in residence at the American Indian Center, a former Masonic temple at 1630 W. Wilson. Almost every night he comes to cover the walls with stories. “This is a painting I have worked on for some time,” he says, facing a four-by-ten mural. “It is the story of a young man on a vision quest. He has fasted for four days, trying to find his uncle who has changed worlds, and in his dream it is his uncle who comes to help him.”
The walls of the Indian center are full of Wapahi’s works. In one back room is a series of paintings depicting the massacre at Wounded Knee. A mural in the second-floor hallway portrays Sioux homes. There are also several paintings of a young Native American woman. “She is the face in the sky. She used to work here, and her spirit is still around here. Often during the night I catch glimpses of her, and I try to capture them on canvas.”
Wapahi drips more red paint on, smearing it slightly, then wiping most of it off with a turpentine-soaked rag. He goes on layering the paint and overlapping the colors well into the night. “I can still feel the spirits of the Masons in this building. They are not bad spirits. But this is now our building.”
