The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 114

Jamie M. Singson * Amanda R. Tachine * Charlotte E. Davidson * Stephanie J. Waterman

within these contexts. This struggle can go
undetected as NNCUs are often unaware of
place-based knowing (Davidson, 2015). College
campuses are places of historical tension
because "Native American students live on
land that was colonized by the very institutions
from which they seek an education. . . . No other
population comes to college with these characteristics" (Springer, Davidson, & Waterman,
2013, p. 112). All students, faculty, staff, and
administrators should strive to understand
the tendency of hegemonic forces to erase the
history of ﬁrst-peoples whose land the institution occupies.
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 (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991). The
value of this type of respect comes through
recognition that Indigenous epistemologies
of spatial understanding inform how culture,
language, and traditions are interwoven in a
way that strengthen community. Basso (1996)
described it this way: "Knowledge of places is
therefore closely linked to knowledge of the
self, to grasping one's position in the larger
scheme of things, including one's own community, and to securing a conﬁdent sense of
who one is as a person" (p. 34). The importance of students understanding themselves
in a spatial reality, or place, has relevance not
only to Indigenous students but to all students. After all, Indigenous history is American history, and Indigenous history is part of
an institution's history.

114

Connecting Place and Institutional
Infrastructures
For many Indigenous peoples, a fundamental
part of the individual's physical and mental
health is considered in tandem with a community's well-being. With this understanding, Indigenous community-based partnerships with
architectural ﬁrms are on the rise (Malnar &
Vodvarka, 2013). These partnerships focus
on the needs of Indigenous peoples to have
a voice in the evaluation and design process.
For example, evaluation criteria put forward
by the Center for American Indian Research
and Native Studies (CAIRNS) acknowledged
the need for project planning to use qualitative approaches via stories of the communities
and stakeholders. In doing so a communal
level of feedback becomes part of an Indigenous process: "the evaluation of projects that
provide services to Native communities
should include four dimensions-spatial,
social, spiritual and experiential-that conceptually deﬁne traditional Native communities"
(CAIRNS, n.d., para. 2). Elements of spirituality and experiential dimensions allow for culturally speciﬁc nuances to be recognized and
incorporated. Although a majority of these
collaborative projects are occurring on Tribal
Lands and at Tribal Colleges and Universities,
non-Native infrastructures are making inroads
in adopting these types of practices (Malnar &
Vodvarka, 2013).
Using the conceptual framework of the
Four Rs while also acknowledging the powerful
role of place, we focus on Non-Native College
and University housing trends that inﬂuence
Native students through four examples: (1)
the intentional design of Wassaja Hall at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;

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