A student crew from the Northern Michigan University construction management program recently built a new pavilion over the NMU Center for Native American Studies (CNAS) fire site. The CNAS describes the pavilion as “a legacy project” that they are excited to share with the campus and community.
This fire site has its own history, beginning in 2002, when the campus held memorials for victims of 9-11. Multiple faiths were involved in these memorials, but for Native people on campus, smudging—a popular ritual used to clear people and places of negative energy—was not acceptable. This sparked the idea of having a designated space on campus where ceremonial fires could take place for pow wows and other events.
A fire site for educational, cultural and social outdoor gatherings was built in the summer of 2003 in a peaceful, wooded area on the grounds of Whitman Hall. Two years later, benches were placed at the site in the four directions of north, south, east and west. Upon each is a wood burning of a particular clan of the Anishinaabe. The drawings were created by then-student Pamela Abel.
Student construction crews helped with the building of the benches and contributed their help again to complete the pavilion project during the fall 2024 semester. Faculty, staff, student and community groups can request use of the fire site by emailing cnas@nmu.edu.