The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 115

A Second Home

(2) O'odham Ki:, a culturally relevant livinglearning residence hall wing at the University
of Arizona; (3) a culturally relevant smudging
policy at South Dakota State University, and
(4) a critique of carousel interviewing practices
that invalidate Indigenous culture.

FORWARD: APPLICATIONS OF
NATIVE AMERICANS' SENSE
OF PLACE, COMMUNITY, AND
SPIRITUALITY IN CAMPUS
HOUSING
Wassaja Hall: Respecting Tribal Protocol
and History
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI) is embracing an important American Indian alumnus in their institutional
history. The UI Housing Division decided to
name one of a newly planned series of residence halls, Wassaja Hall, after the traditional
Yavapai name of their alumnus, Dr. Carlos
Montezuma. Wassaja Hall is scheduled to
open in the fall of 2016.
Two considerations were important prior to
the UI Board of Trustees' approval of naming
the future residence hall (University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, 2015b). The ﬁrst consideration was ethical; according to Indigenous
protocol, permission to use Carlos Montezuma's Yavapai given name required endorsement from the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
and Dr. Montezuma's descendants. The university received the necessary permission from
the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, which put
into motion the steps to ratify use of the name.
To not include the family in this decision would
have been disrespectful to the Yavapai, as well
as the Peoria, the original people of Illinois.

Montezuma and other non-Peoria, including
university personnel and city residents, are
considered guests on Peoria land. The request
to the Yavapai was done with the intention of
demonstrating cultural respect. The University
of Illinois expanded their "domain of human
knowledge" (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991, p. 8)
by learning and following the cultural protocol
of engaging with the Fort McDowell Yavapai
nation and neighboring Tribes.
The second consideration was the recognition that though Carlos Montezuma was a
UI alumnus, neither he nor the Yavapai are
original people of Illinois. Montezuma entered
the institution as a student in 1880 more than
half a century after all Tribal Nations had been
forcibly removed from Illinois. In a show of
reciprocity, UI University Housing sought
to recognize the history of the land and the
Peoria, the original people of the land on which
Wassaja Hall is being constructed. UI respected the importance of place for the original

In a transformational sense,
when an institution opens itself
to the Four Rs construct of
respectful, relevant, responsible,
and reciprocal inquiry into the
Indigenous understandings of
place, a space can develop for
healing that beneﬁts both Native
and non-Native students.
V O L U M E 4 2 , NO. 2 * 2 0 1 6

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2

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