“It's time,” said Swaney, a UM assistant professor of psychology. “Native Americans are asserting their right to educate and be educated in our own way. This building will provide that place.”
The public is invited to attend the 9 a.m. ceremonial event, which will embrace traditional customs of acknowledging the land before transforming it into a camp, in this case, a campsite that will provide a higher education home for future generations.
Tribal leaders and major donor representatives will make traditional offerings of tobacco during Saturday's ceremony, which will be led by Tony Incashola, a Salish and Pend d'Oreille elder from the Flathead Reservation. The groundbreaking will take place on the UM Oval south of the grizzly bear statue and east of the Lommasson Center.
The keynote speech will be given by Gregory Cajete, a Tewa from the Santa Clara Pueblo of New Mexico. He will speak about the importance of place to Native Americans. Cajete, a University of New Mexico professor, artist and educational consultant, was founding director of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
Tribal and spiritual leaders from across the state met at the building site to offer prayers of healing in October 2006. The University of Montana is located on a traditional gathering place for tribes, including the Salish. Now, however, the center promises to complete a once-broken circle.
The 19,900-square-foot center is being touted as a first-of-its-kind center on any U.S. campus. It will house the Native American Studies Department, American Indian Student Services and other related campus programming.
Individuals, foundations, corporations and tribes from Montana and throughout the United States have contributed $6.6 million toward the center. Rising construction costs have placed a $9.7 million price tag on the project. The university has committed $1.25 million to the center, so approximately $1.85 million still is needed.
Terry Payne, a Missoula businessman, remains the center's lead donor. First Interstate Bank and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, a nationally recognized Minnesota-based organization, are also major donors.
“It's very unusual,” said Philip “Sam” Deloria, American Indian Graduate Center executive director in Albuquerque, N.M. He said university Indian programs are usually found in “a broken-down house someplace.”
Deloria, who was a keynote speaker at a UM tribal knowledge and research conference on Thursday, said it would be important to offer meaningful tribal-based programs once the center is complete. Otherwise, it will just be a building, he said.
Those plans are already in the works, said Juneau.
The center is expected to become a gathering space for tribal leaders in the state, region and nation to address common challenges. It will also be a bridge uniting all cultures.
Julia Horn, a UM senior development director who has led the center's fundraising for the past four years, said the university is forming a partnership with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation to provide workshops and academic programs in the center.
“They are forward-thinking and on the edge,” said Horn. “We want this to be a national model for a new way of doing things.”
The ILTF researches issues critical to large, land-based tribes, including monitoring land policy and ongoing regulation changes within the Interior Department's Office of Special Trustee and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Construction of the center will begin this summer. It is expected to be complete by fall 2009.
“I see this as symbolizing hope,” said Horn. “It's been a vision in the making for 40 years. It indicates the shift to a new beginning.”
Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 523-5299 or jodi.rave@lee.net
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)