A new 120-foot-long, more than 15-foot-tall mural now stretches across a wall adjacent to the Tacoma Dome, the work of Puyallup Tribe member and artist Anthony Duenas, who finished the piece on Aug. 18 after spending seven days spray-painting it. Titled x̌əčulb — a Lushootseed word Duenas says means to explain your lineage — the mural depicts a child looking east toward those who came before him, an elder in a traditional woven cedar bark hat looking west toward the Dome and Mount Rainier, and a thunderbird wing sheltering two people paddling a canoe.
The 43-year-old artist told The News Tribune that the canoe in the mural represents everybody's journey, and he said he is trying to leave a permanent mark on the city where he grew up, in Eastside Tacoma. According to Duenas, a longhouse once stood at the Tacoma Dome site roughly a hundred years ago — a detail that echoes tribal records showing that ancestral Puyallup villages, known as spuyaləpabš, once spanned the mouth of the Puyallup River in the area now occupied by the Tacoma Dome District, according to the Puyallup Tribe.
A Formal Blessing Is Coming Sept. 16
Tacoma Venues & Events funded the mural project, and Tacoma Venues & Events announced that a public ribbon-cutting ceremony and tribal blessing for x̌əčulb will take place at the Tacoma Dome on Sept. 16 at 10 a.m., according to a Facebook announcement from the Tacoma Dome. The mural project began with a competitive application process launched in summer 2025, culminating in the Puyallup Tribe's Heritage Division selecting Duenas's design in partnership with Tacoma Venues & Events and the City of Tacoma's Arts and Cultural Vitality division, per the venue's website.
Tacoma Venues & Events Director Adam Cook said that because the Tacoma Dome serves as a major regional gathering place, it is vital for the facility to visibly reflect the history and enduring presence of the Puyallup People on their ancestral lands, according to a Tacoma Dome news release. Marketing Director Hillary Chynoweth said the mural project cost $75,000. Owned and operated by the City of Tacoma, the Dome opened in April 1983 and underwent a major renovation in 2018, and it stands as one of the world's largest wood-domed structures with an arena capacity of up to 21,000 spectators.
A Career Built on Coast Salish Storytelling
Duenas started as a cartoonist before beginning to work in the Coast Salish art style in 1999, and his portfolio around Tacoma has grown steadily since. In May 2020, he completed a 174.5-foot-long by 30-foot-high freehand spray-paint mural depicting traditional Slahal bone games near the main entrance of the Puyallup Tribe's I-5 Emerald Queen Casino, according to Puyallup Tribal News. He also created a vinyl print of a moon and salmon at the casino, and he told The News Tribune he hopes people remember that the Puyallup people are still here.
In 2024, Sound Transit commissioned Duenas to design permanent public artworks titled Ripple, Power, Eternal, Resilience, installed along the S Line train platform at Tacoma Dome Station, according to Sound Transit. He also created large designs installed in glass at the Tacoma Dome Amtrak and light rail station. In 2018, Metro Parks Tacoma commissioned Duenas for an $8,000 public artwork titled syayayʔəʔ tiʔəʔ xʷəiqʷədiʔ pt.2, or Family of the Thunderbird, featuring three painted panels along the Owen Beach promenade in Point Defiance Park, per Metro Parks Tacoma.
From Museum Walls to Neighborhood Utility Boxes
Duenas's work has also reached the region's civil rights history. In January 2026, the Washington State Historical Society featured a large digital mural he created depicting the 1960s–70s Pacific Northwest Fish Wars as part of its permanent exhibition This Is Native Land at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, according to the Washington State Historical Society.
Closer to street level, Duenas collaborated with his brothers Chris and Daniel in March 2021 to wrap several city utility boxes around East Tacoma, Fireman's Park, and the Puyallup Reservation with vinyl-printed Coast Salish art and Lushootseed language phrasing, according to Puyallup Tribal News. Duenas has said he plans to go full-time with his art in the future, adding another chapter to a body of work that now spans casinos, transit platforms, museum walls, park promenades and neighborhood utility boxes across Tacoma.
