'Huge milestone': U. opens Native Ascent House, residential facility for Indigenous students

SALT LAKE CITY — For Cliftene Duncan, a sophomore at the University of Utah from Fort Duchesne, leaving her community behind to make the move to Salt Lake City was a difficult one.

"Though I knew I wanted to pursue my education, it was tough to leave everything I knew for an entirely different life," said Duncan, a Northern Ute.

The U.'s relatively new Native Ascent Scholars Program, though, aims to help Indigenous students like her make the adjustment, and Duncan and others gathered Thursday to mark a program milestone — opening of a residential house geared to the Native American community.

"Having a program to lean on while pursuing my educational career has been such a huge part of my college experience," said Duncan, one of 11 students living in the facility on Officer's Circle on the U. campus.

Several other students and university officials also spoke, cutting a red ribbon to formally inaugurate Native Ascent House, as the red brick structure is known. The Native Ascent program, meant to foster community and academic growth, has been in the works for four years. It operates under the umbrella of the U.'s Center for Native Excellence and Tribal Engagement, more broadly meant to promote engagement among American Indian and Alaskan Native students, staff and faculty.

Tavamawisi Groves, a junior from Springville and a member of the Ute tribe, touted the "sense of community" in the new residential unit and the cultural bond among the students in Native Ascent House. "We all know we have each other's back and we also all know that we have things that we hold important all together and that we share in common," she said.

Duncan sounded a similar message.

"It is important for us that we learn not to separate our culture and our education but to combine them in a way that empowers Indigenous voices and raises the standard for Indigenous students," she said.

While HB261, the Utah law passed in 2024, restricts programming and initiatives at Utah universities geared to identity groups, including Latino, Black and LGBTQ students, the legislation includes a carve out for the University of Utah stemming from an accord it has with the Ute Indian Tribe. Native American tribes, moreover, have a different standing than other racial or ethnic groups as federally recognized sovereign entities.

Community building

Lori McDonald, vice president of student affairs at the U., said the university's aim is to help students find "their passion, their people and their purpose" during their time at the facility.

In fact, she hopes "they find several passions, several peoples and several purposes," she said. "And something like the Native Ascent living-learning community helps with that."

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Tashina Barber, program manager for the Center for Native Excellence and Tribal Engagement, said before opening of Native Ascent House, students involved in the Native Ascent program met for social gatherings and other activities. Opening of the residential unit, though, located near the Center for Native Excellence offices, is a big step forward and she dreams of even more.

Having the Native Ascent House, "a standalone space," helps foster "those conversations and engagements of community building amongst each other," she said. "Huge milestone for us."

She estimates that perhaps 1% of students at the University of Utah identify as Native American

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