About

Celebrating Native American identities, cultural representation, and supporting success through a community of Native students, faculty, and staff on KU's campus and beyond.
A Native students celebrating at graduation

NAI Mission

Providing Native American students holistic support, mentoring, resources, professional development opportunities, and most importantly, cultural and social programming for all Jayhawks with an emphasis on Native American Jayhawks.

We are Here to:

  • Support the educational journey of Native American students by prioritizing their home culture.
  • Create learning environments that support culturally relevant education.
  • Build a community of care that fosters the well-being of all Native American Jayhawks.
  • Collaborate with campus partners to support Native American Initiatives.
  • Maintain our long-lasting relationship with our sister institution, Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU).
  • Build sustainable relationships with tribal nations, especially those represented at KU and those who historically or currently inhabit the region that is now called Kansas.

Indigenization---

  • "The act of making our educational philosophy, pedagogy, and system our own, making the effort to explicitly explore ways of knowing and systems of knowledge that have been actively repressed for five centuries."

  • -Vine Deloria Jr. & Daniel R. Wildcat

Our Legacy

Established in 2021, the Office of Native American Initiatives lifts our institutional mission to educate leaders, build healthy communities and make discoveries that change the world.

A tipi set up outside of Strong Hall and a drum circle playing