UA News

With more than $25,000 in donations, an archway at the UA's Women's Plaza of Honor will be etched with the names of American Indian women who have been nominated by the state's tribal nations.

A new archway located at The University of Arizona Women's Plaza of Honor will soon be engraved with the names of American Indian women to recognize their contributions.

To date, the Tohono O'odham Nation, Ak-Chin Indian Community, Cocopa Indian Tribe, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe and the Kaibab Paitute Tribe are among those that provided funding to support the engravings, which are expected to occur by the year's end.

"The fundraising drive was more than successful," said Elizabeth Kennedy, a UA women's studies and anthropology professor, noting that more than $25,000 has been raised for the archway and its pillars.

"That was more than what was necessary to allow us to donate the archway to Native American women," Kennedy said.

The Plaza, which is sponsored by the Women's Studies Advisory Council, serves to document and preserve the life stories of women from across the state of Arizona and elsewhere while also raising funds to support students and programs in the UA women's studies department.

The names of more than 600 women are etched and engraved in the benches, archways, columns, stairways and other structures located at the Plaza, which is situated on the UA campus between Centennial Hall and the Arizona State Museum-South.

For now, the 22 federally-recognized tribal nations in Arizona have been asked to nominate the names of women to the advisory committee raising funds for the archway. The advisory committee expects to receive the names by June 1.

"In recognizing all women we wanted particularly to make sure some of the benches, arches and gardens had a specific reference to women of color," Kennedy said. "That more accurately reflects the history of this state and the University."

Other committees are raising funds to dedicate an archway to African American and a plaza to Hispanic women.

Honoring the contributions of American Indian women is important both to tribal nations and to the University, said Karen Francis-Begay, the Special Advisor for Native American Affairs to UA President Robert N. Shelton.

"It will be really exciting to see this come to the final phase with 22 of the Native American listed with their tribal affiliations," Francis-Begay said, noting that the newly unveiled kiosk will also contain biographical information of the women listed.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to have a designation on campus that recognizes Native American people and women and their contributions given that the state of Arizona is home to 22 federally-recognized tribes and where 32 percent of the land base is tribal land" Francis-Begay said.

"There are so many great women and youth to honor so we're hoping this will generate more interest and more naming opportunities because there is a lot of symbolism there," she added. "This will certainly demonstrate a high regard and respect for the first people in this territory."