Tending the Fire

Tending the Fire
Artist	MJM Studios
Year	2000
Type	bronze
Location	Potawatomi Bingo Casino, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Coordinates	43°1′53.196″N 87°56′5.44″W / 43.03144333°N 87.9348444°W / 43.03144333; -87.9348444Coordinates: 43°1′53.196″N 87°56′5.44″W / 43.03144333°N 87.9348444°W / 43.03144333; -87.9348444
Owner	Potawatomi Historical and Cultural Board

Tending the Fire is a public art work produced by MJM Studios located on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the Menomonee Valley. The bronze sculpture depicts a Native American figure seated near a small fire.^[1]

Description

The figure has a bare torso and wears fringed pants. His hair is parted in the center, and two long braids reach down across his chest. Three eagle feathers extend from the back of his head, two facing upward and one facing downward. He is seated on the ground with his legs crossed in front of him. His back is curved forward. Both arms rest across his ankles. In one hand, he holds a twig toward the fire. His gaze is directed toward the space above the fire, which is an arrangement of logs that radiate outward from a center point and flames that reach skyward in a pyramidical form.^[1]

Commissioning process

The Potawatomi Historical and Cultural Board commissioned MJM Studios to produce the sculpture for the new Potawatomi Bingo Casino in 2000. The sculpture recognizes the Potawatomi tribe's heritage as "keepers of the sacred fire," a role derived from Neshnabé legend.^[2] The design of the sculpture is based on archival photographs.

Location

MJM Studios produced two Tending the Fire statues. One is installed in front of the main entrance to the casino, and the other is installed at the administrative office on S. 13th St. and St. Paul Ave.^[1]

References

1 2 3 "Tending the Fire--The Story behind the Statue". Potawatomi Bingo Website. Forest County Potawatomi Community. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
↑ Edmunds, R. David (1988). The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press (Civilization of the American Indian Series). ISBN 0-8061-2069-X

Milwaukee public art

Downtown	The Victorious Charge Family The Calling Wisconsin Workers Memorial Wind Leaves Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil The Great Double Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans Solomon Juneau Leif, the Discoverer Letter Carriers' Monument Argo Bronze Fonz Walkways Through the Wall Abraham Lincoln George Washington Referee Immigrant Mother King Gambrinus RiverSculpture! Gertie the Duck General Douglas MacArthur The Spirit of Polonia World War I Memorial Flagpole Pedestrian Drama Midsummer Carnival Shaft Acqua Grylli Laureate Diana Trigon Pere Jacques Marquette Spanish-American War Soldier Ruins X Ex Stasis City Yard Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Peter John A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky Rainbow Machine Topiary Lucere Dancing Through Life Gertie Gets Her Ducks in a Row Mother Teresa Monument Jacques Marquette You Rise Above the World The Last Alarm

North Side	Celebrating the Arts Christian Wahl Elk On Watch Pattern Lapham Memorial Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. here, mothers are... Music Fishing Spirit of the Firefighter Dauntless Guardian Buildings 1992 Gear 23 All in the Air at Once First Flight Sea of the Ear Kindred Ties

East Side	Cleopatra's Wedge Float Polyphony Boy with Goose Eight Stone Lions Three Bronze Discs Holocaust Memorial Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology Blue Dress Park Sentinels Hermes Milwaukee Eclipse 'X' Intertwining Compass Erastus B. Wolcott Sharing the Load Robert Burns Near Here Compass Walk Like a River Spillover II Tip Jantar-Mantar Cass Street Park Brady Street Beasts Connect Fairies Candles

South Side	Menomonee Count Casimir Pulaski Spirit of Commerce Bay View Series A Place to Sit Stratiformis The Hill Climber Deflected Jets Angel in a Cage R.D. Whitehead Monument Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs T.A. Chapman Memorial Nature Belle Oops, Missed Space Game Engine Company No. 10 William A. Starke Memorial Steel Reborn Red Flower Rising General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Patrick Cudahy Memorial SOARING Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress Edge Elements Ribbons VI Bridge Stone Bracelet Untitled Quartet Tending the Fire Bird and Fish The Sower The Reaper Giving Gifts

West Side	Henry Bergh Goethe–Schiller Monument Chrysalis The Ideal Scout Uptown Triangles Tree of Life Magic Grove Steuben Monument Kneeling Camels Teamwork Aaron Monument Yount Monument Selig Monument Uecker Monument Fire and Water Vliet Street Commons Miller Valley Veterans Monument Children of the West End

Lynden Sculpture Garden	Sinai Wandering Rocks Sea Form (Atlantic) Sky Fence Floating Sculpture No. 3 Mo, Ni, Que Trio Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9 Way Four Compound Junior Salem No. 7 Bremen Town Musicians Ancestor Queen of Sheba Rhythm in Space Peristyle, Three Lines Orizzontale Embrace Ursa Major Three Graces Large Torso, Arch Double Up Upstart The Lovers Poland Axeltree Orbits Ritual II Hara Olympus The Lovers Tensione No. 2 The Source Rainbow Unfolding Vegetative Sculpture I Round About Lodgepole Twist for Max Bench-Stone Windfall Knife Tree Conversations with Magic Stones, Figure Three Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three) Kumo Untitled Arch Epicenter Epicenter II III Columns Flight Pin Oak I

Mobile projects	Overpass Light Brigade

Overview	List of public art in Milwaukee

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