The UM initiative is highly collaborative: working with all 12 of Montana’s federally recognized tribes, tribal elders and knowledge keepers will visit the university to share their stories and expertise. The partnerships started in 2023 with scholars in residence from Blackfeet Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy.

A group of students descending an exterior staircase on a campus building at the University of Montana

Visiting scholars have recorded oral histories to preserve their stories and knowledge.

Audio recording equipment including microphones and sound screens are clamped to a table in a university’s media studio.

Headshot of Fernando Sánchez

I envision a curriculum where Indigenous ways of knowing are more strongly present . . . and an infrastructure that can grow to support new tribes.

“I really want my story to be told . . . because I’m very proud of my heritage and very proud of where we’re at now,” says Wendy Hopkins of Little Shell Tribe. Hopkins is a scholar in residence, visiting the university and working with faculty and students. 

A Native woman with dark hair and glasses in a black long sleeve shirt and white vest stands in an archive room examining artifacts on a table

A Chippewa beaded vest is one of many Native American artifacts housed in the university‘s archive and special collections. The vest depicts a calla lily in colorful beadwork, created by an unknown Pend d’Oreille woman according to papers from the Frank Bird Linderman Family collection.

A black beaded vest, a Chippewa artifact, with a beaded calla lily design sits in a box surrounded by tissue as it is held and examined by a person whose hands are holding the vest

Headshot of Wendy Hopkins

Understanding the plight that my people went through to try and get their identity back—it’s been extremely emotional. I owe it to my ancestors to tell this story.

A Growing Opportunity for Indigenized Learning

Located on the University of Montana campus, the Payne Family Native American Center provides an academic home to students, faculty, and visiting scholars. 

Various flags standing on poles inside of a campus building in front of windows between two columns

The university is building on Indigenous Education for All (IEFA) a state constitutional mandate requiring public schools to teach about the heritage and culture of Native Americans in the region. 

An aerial view of the University of Montana campus

Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, home to the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Montana.

The exterior of the Mansfield Library building at the University of Montana

Scholars and students come to access published and unpublished holdings of material that explores regional histories.

A large below ground archive room with fluorescent lights filled with rows of books and artifacts with several desks throughout

Collaborators on the initiative include (left to right) Amy Kinch, Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Assistant on Campus Relations; Annie Belcourt, PhD and chair of Native American Studies; Wendy Hopkins of Little Shell Tribe; and Fernando Sánchez, director of the Elouise Cobell Land and Culture Institute.

Four collaborators of the University of Montana initiative stand in a grassy area on campus

Missoula is an arts and cultural capital of Montana and the state’s second-largest city. The university draws students from across the globe and also lies at the convergence of five mountain ranges. 

Two female students sit on a white staircase on the campus of the University of Montana

An ambitious new humanities initiative at University of Montana builds on a state constitutional mandate to catalyze study and preservation of Native American histories and knowledge.  

Centering Indigenous Epistemologies

The University of Montana attracts students of all backgrounds; a majority are Montana residents. In 2023, UM emphasized its growing enrollment, including among Native American and Native Alaskan first-year students.

A tall red brick gothic building with a clock tower on the campus of the University of Montana

Putting Indigenous Stories Back in the Picture

Artists as Catalysts

Artists as Catalysts Navigation Image

Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 