Quapaw Tribe dancers to perform at mural dedication

Traditional tribal dancers from the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma will perform Wednesday at the dedication of the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club Centennial Mural on the Simon Mendel Building in downtown Hot Springs.

The dedication will take place at noon Wednesday at the Exchange Street Parking Plaza, in front of the mural, located in the 500 block of Central Avenue. Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paul Sammons will also perform at the event. Sammons is known for composing the soundtrack to the film “Woke Up This Mornin’ in the Arkansas Delta.”

The eight tribal dancers and three singers will take the stage at noon to perform traditional Quapaw tribal dancing with native singing and drumming, the Rotary Club said in a news release. They will be available for photographs immediately following their performance.

“The tribal dancers are excited to share their culture with the people of Arkansas and be in the area they once called home,” Mary Zunick, Visit Hot Springs cultural affairs manager, said in a news release.

The mural was commissioned by the Rotary Club as part of its centennial celebration, “as a way to honor the rich history of the area while beautifying the downtown area,” the release said.

The mural’s artist, Giuseppi Percivati of Italy, whose works have appeared internationally, including Japan and Australia, wanted to honor the role the Quapaw Tribe played in the early establishment of the city, and was influenced by the work of late Arkansas artist Charles Banks Wilson, the release said.

“Every time we come to Arkansas, I feel our ancestors all around us. I think they would be happy that the Quapaws are making an effort to be a presence in our ancestral home,” Tribal member Mike Shawnee said in the release.

“We’re very much from Arkansas,” Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma Chairman John Berrey said in the release. “We’re emotionally attached to it.”

“Before their forced removal around 1834, the Quapaw Tribe called most of Arkansas home, living in areas as far east as the Mississippi River and west to Oklahoma and Texas. The tribe recently purchased 160 acres near Little Rock in an effort to regain some of their lost territorial homelands,” the release said.

More than eight months ago, Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club gathered submissions from around the world for its Centennial Mural Project in the downtown Historic District, offering the winning artist $15,000 to create a mural on the south-facing wall of the Simon Mendel Building.