The Payne Family Native American Center
The Payne Family Native American Center at the University of Montana in Missoula is the first building in the United States designed specifically for Native American Studies and American Indian Student Services. It opened with a dedication on May 13, 2010.
During the dedication, Joseph Medicine Crow wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom and tapped the building with a coup stick, a traditional gesture used when a new lodge or teepee is raised. The ceremony welcomed the center as a “coming home” for Montana Natives, recognizing that the land around the campus was once home to Chief Charlo and the Bitterroot Salish before many were moved to the Flathead Indian Reservation in 1891. A “Coming Home” walk ran from the Adams Center to the university oval.
Other notable events included the dedication of the Bonnie HeavyRunner Memorial Gathering Space and a lunch sponsored by the university and the Crow Nation.
Design and layout are symbolic: the building is a 12‑sided rotunda, with each side representing one of Montana’s 12 tribes. The 30,000-square-foot facility features Parfleche patterns etched and stained on the floor. The logs used for the structure were salvaged from the Clark Fork River.
The center is the latest building on campus and sits on the last available space around the oval. It was designed by Daniel Glenn, a Crow Tribe member and principal of Glenn & Glenn Architects Engineers, PLLC. Inside, it houses four classrooms, one conference room, 12 offices, a student lounge, and student meeting rooms. The main entrance faces east, and the roof includes a long skylight reminiscent of a teepee’s smoke hole. Exterior walls bear the seals of Montana’s seven reservations and the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, along with quotes from University President George Dennison and Native American elders.
Seven native plant and herb gardens circle the center, symbolizing the state’s reservations and the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The project diverted 85 percent of construction waste from landfills, used site rocks for retaining walls, and encouraged local material purchases to reduce the carbon footprint. The center is the first Montana University System building to earn LEED certification.
Funding came largely from Terry Payne, a UM graduate (Class of 1963) and chairman of the Payne Financial Group, with a total cost of about $8.6 million. Other contributors included First Interstate Bank and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.
On November 5, 2010, the center received the Environmental Achievement award from the Pacific Northwest International Section of the Air and Waste Management Association. Earlier that year, on April 13, a rock was thrown at the northeast door, breaking the glass but not piercing it; campus police were notified the next day, and President Dennison asked the campus to report any suspicious activity.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:34 (CET).