CWC welcomes New Tribal Ed Assistant

Riverton, Wyo.—Central Wyoming College (CWC) is pleased to announce the appointment of George “Al” Hubbard as the new Tribal Education and Institute of Tribal Learning Assistant. Al, an accomplished artist, graduated from Central Wyoming College and furthered his education at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hubbard will be a great asset to tribal relations and other endeavors and initiatives through Tribal Education and the Institute of Tribal Learning. The college continues to grow in the area of tribal education and has many trails to forge down the road through relationships and reciprocity.

“I truly feel we are the leader in tribal education and understanding,” says Ivan Posey, Tribal Education Coordinator and Institute of Tribal Learning. “Al will enhance our mission.”

The Institute of Tribal Learning coordinates American Indian services through continued education on historical and contemporary issues. It provides a positive influence to educate both tribal and non-tribal community members about American Indian issues on a local and national scale.

As a designated Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institution (NASNTI), Central Wyoming College has been serving the tribal communities of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho nations of the Wind River Indian Reservation since 1966.

CWC serves the largest American Indian student population among the seven community colleges in Wyoming, with approximately 45% of the state’s American Indian community college students attending CWC. Recognizing the crucial importance of its tribal communities, the push to build the Intertribal Education and Community Center helped bring a facility to the campus that celebrates the rich American Indian heritage and culture of the CWC service area.

Currently, Hubbard is painting a mural at the Frank Wise Building, further contributing to the cultural landscape of the college. CWC-Wind River conducts classes in the Frank Wise Building. Shila Aragon commissioned the work on behalf of the Wind River Development Fund. 

Mural Statement by Al Hubbard

Driving the long stretch of road from Beaver Creek Housing located on the eastern side of the Wind River Reservation, is a forty-five-minute cruise to reflect, assemble, and arrange my sensibilities of making large scale murals located inside the Frank Wise Building located in Fort Washakie, Wyoming.

Before I begin a larger painting, there’s a few things I consider…Location. Community. Cultural Relevance, and Story. My goal is to make a meaningful visual interpretation reflective of these elements.

Casual conversation sometimes transforms into a point of origin for a much bigger concept or project. My daily interactions within my community on the rez will sometimes spark an idea that leads to a memory or event that can be traced to our ancient bloodlines as Indigenous people. I’m interested in our world of connections through our stories, language, and tradition.

It is a conversation with Shila Aragon, the office manager for the Wind River Development Fund that initiated this project. After meeting with the Executive Director, Paul Huberty, I submitted a proposal for several murals and once they approved it, I got to work. However, at the same time during this process, I interviewed and eventually got hired as the Tribal Education Assistant at Central Wyoming College under the Institute of Tribal Learning.

When asked if I would be able to make murals inside the Frank Wise Building, I immediately wanted to tell a story of our movements as Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people through the physical and non-physical worlds. We navigate on multiple levels of tradition and contemporary values as a collective. I began to digitally draw designs of paths, and metaphoric icons to transform a concept into a visual language. Color also played a part of telling the narrative of movement and paths that we all must leave as a mark in this world.

The murals were commissioned by the Wind River Development Fund. All three murals are expected to be completed by the end of March 2025.

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For more information about the Institute of Tribal Learning and its initiatives, please CWC Tribal Learning.