Our History

As current Native students of Purdue University, we firmly believe that the creation of a Native American student center will collectively contribute to Native student success, Purdue's mission to enrich the student and cultural dynamics, and most critical, students will have the capacity to become lead candidates in contributing to Tribal needs and cultivating the notion of Tribal sovereignty.

-- Purdue University Native American graduate students Kimberle Davis, Jeremy Garcia, Hollie Kulago, Aleeah Livengood, and Valerie Shirley (Spring 2006)

When the doors first opened in March 2007, the Native American Educational and Cultural Center (NAECC) was the first cultural center in the state of Indiana dedicated to supporting Indigenous students and since then, we continue to celebrate unprecedented success.

• The NAECC is recognized nationally in the areas of recruitment and retention of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian graduate students through the success of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) program. In the fall 2022, SIGP will recognize the 50^th Indigenous Purdue student who will graduate with an advance degree in STEM discipline.
• Purdue Indigenous alumni hold leadership positions within tribal nations and serve as faculty in tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), minority serving institutions (MSIs), and R1 institutions across the U.S.

We extended our gratitude to students, faculty, staff, and community members who were part of the Tecumseh Project, the NAECC’s founding initiative.

Tecumseh Project

In the spirit of the great Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, and his vision of a coalition of Native people that control their own destiny, the Tecumseh Project was developed through grass-roots effort by Purdue students, faculty and staff to create a community of Native scholars at Purdue University. This initiative focused on building partnerships between Purdue University and Native communities as well as TCUs and MSIs. The mission of the Tecumseh Project was to assist graduate students in developing research projects on Native lands and within their tribal communities.

 The Tecumseh Project was the driving force behind the following university-wide Native American initiatives: 

• Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Program targeted to Native American graduate students
• Tecumseh Seminar Speaker Series, designed to highlight research of Native American scholars at Purdue University and across the U.S.
• Eastern Band Cherokee Visiting Scholars Partnership Program, a year-long program featuring Cherokee elders, scholars, and artist who spent a week-long residency at Purdue to share their knowledge in Cherokee history, languages, and artwork. 

The NAECC was originally located in South Campus Courts on Harrison Street and at the time, it was the third cultural center on campus joining the Black Cultural Center and the Latino Cultural Center. The NAECC is under the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Office of the Provost and in 2016, the NAECC moved to the central part of campus at the intersection of University Street and Fifth Street. The Center tripled in size and expanded services where it continues to serve the academic, cultural, and social needs of Purdue students.

NAECC Timeline