Despite pouring rain, University students, officials and alumni gathered to commemorate the Native American open house Friday.

The building, located at 1206 W. Nevada St., Urbana, is home to a cultural center as well as to a variety of American Indian Studies programs.

For over 15 years, students had been advocating for the opening of a cultural center for Native Americans. A center finally opened in 2003. Wanda S. Pillow, director of the house and associate professor in gender and women’s studies, said in her speech that it was historic for the Native American House to be opened at the University and that it is really a program-building year for them.

Pillow elaborated on how historic it was to hire the first faculty for American Indian studies and to offer American Indians support services from a Native American cultural center. However, success did not come without the help of others as Pillow highlighted when she thanked the Latina/Latino Studies program, Asian American Studies program and the Asian American cultural center for offering office space for her professors.

“I think that people should take the incentive to come to these events because it is important to be aware of other cultures,” said Christina Beaird, freshman in LAS.

The Native American House addresses the needs of Native Americans inside and outside of the classroom by having an academic unit and the components of a cultural center all under one roof.

“Our goal is to have excellent American Indians Studies programs and really vibrant cultural programs coming from the Native American House,” Pillow said.

John McKinn, assistant director of the Native American House and member of the Gila River Indian Community, said the house offers students a space on campus where they are recognized as Native American students.

“With the mascot, it can be a pretty hostile place because the students are defined by this issue,” McKinn said.

With the American Indian Studies program and the emergence of future programs, the house is able to educate others about the culture, history and literature of Native Americans while dispelling misinformation that people have about Native Americans. Some of the programs offered by the Native American House are American Indian Studies, Native American student services and cultural programs, such as theater troupes and rock bands.

“We are moving in all the right directions by opening the American Indians support services that serve as an outlook for Native American students,” said Molly Springer, assistant director of student support and programming and member of the Cherokee Nation. “Student support and cultural programming allows students to feel that they can be socially engaged and help them in ways the classroom may not be able to help them.”

Soon, the Native American House’s student services is to offer a peer-counseling program for Native American students, a promising internship program with the American Indian Center in Chicago and several workshops such as “getting ready for Grad School.”

Pillow said the house hopes to continue its success and growth by further developing the American Indian Studies courses and curriculum.

“We are putting a plan together to have an interdisciplinary minor in American Indian Studies available within a year or two,” McKinn said.

McKinn said the Native American House faculty and staff also hope to bring about a graduate certificate program as well as establish an American Indian Studies major.

Pillow also said the house hopes to raise Native American awareness by putting on programs ranging from speaker series to reading groups. The groups offer students the opportunity to discuss ways of forging links of resistance, decolonizing the academy and visualizing the end of the colonial state, according to a flyer distributed by the Native American House.

The next reading group will meet Oct. 12, discussing the topic of “Conceptualizing Violence” with guest author Andrea Smith from the University of Michigan. The meetings will be held in the Asian American Studies Program Conference Room at 1208 W. Nevada St., from noon to 1:30 pm.

Vivian Ko, area coordinator for cultural programming for the Illini Board and junior in LAS, said she plans on being involved with the house.

“I am interested in what the (Native American House) has to offer, and I hope to work with them in the future,” Ko said.

Even with the huge success, Pillow said she hopes the house will provide a place where people from the campus and the community can learn about Native American culture.