Payne Family Native American Center

The Payne Family Native American Center, located at the University of Montana in Missoula, is the first facility built exclusively for a department of Native American Studies and American Indian Student Services in the United States.

The building’s structure focuses on a 12-sided rotunda style design, with each side representing one of the 12 tribes in Montana. The building has [traditional] Parfleche patterns representing the 12 tribes etched and stained into the floor. The logs that hold the building erect were salvaged from the nearby Bitterroot River. The center contains four classrooms, one conference room, twelve office spaces, a student lounge, and seven student meeting rooms. Following the Plains Tribes tradition, the center’s main entrance faces east. The building form is reflective of the Plains Teepee Lodge, the Sacred Drum, and the Sundance Lodge. Carved into exterior walls are the seals of Montana’s eight reservations as well as quotes from former University President George Dennison and Native American elders such as Earl Barlow and Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow. Seven native plant and medicine gardens are placed around the building, indicative of the teepee rings that once surrounded the site.

The Center is the first LEED Platinum Certified building in Montana’s university system. It was awarded the Environmental Achievement award by the Pacific Northwest International Section of the Air and Waste Management Association.