The image depicts the healing to people painted in the Ojibwa Woodland Arts style. My clan symbol, Makwa, has three roles for the clan. Makwa is a protector, teacher, and healer. In this image, man is inside Makwa learning how to be a healer. When man’s training is complete, he will emerge as a healer. In this image Makwa is teaching mankind to be a healer. Around the combined individuals is a shared stethoscope, the addition of the new tool used in healing. The four directions, four seasons, four races, and the four ages of life are represented by the four circles and black spirit lines that connect all together. The four circles connected with the main image by lines of communication is an especially meaningful symbol used by Woodland Artists. The four circles also represent the four directions, four stages of life, four seasons, and four races. The spirit of the four circles has guided the Native People throughout time. I incorporated an image in each circle; white for the North is the Turtle, yellow for the East is a leather pouch to carry medicine, for the South is a red circle with a birchbark scroll passing on the story of teaching us the use of tobacco, and for the West in black is the medical symbol of Caduceus. Plants used in this image: tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, red cedar, yarrow, alum, and chokecherry. On the shell of the Turtle — white for North is sage, yellow for the East is sweetgrass, red for the South is tobacco, and black for the West is red cedar.
—Gordon Coons

Gordon Coons is an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Northern Wisconsin and a descendant of the Ottawa tribe in Michigan. Now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gordon is a self taught artist, creating and experimenting with a variety of media including linoleum block prints, paintings, pen and ink drawings, and creations in stone, wood, and assembled sculptures.

Although his artwork is more contemporary, each piece portrays a unique view of traditional Native stories or is a record or impression of Indigenous history in North America.