As burning sage perfumed the air on a crisp fall morning, campus, state and tribal leaders gathered yesterday to ceremonially bless the ground and announce the name of the University of Maryland’s first new dining hall in nearly 50 years.
It will be called “Yahentamitsi” (Yah-hen-tuh-meet-c), which means “a place to go to eat” in the Algonquian language spoken by the Piscataway, who are indigenous to Maryland, and will open in 2022.
“Today we have the opportunity to reimagine and to see what is familiar to us, but through Piscataway eyes. This campus has been here for a very long time—yet many of us were blind to its history,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “As a land-grant institution, I believe it is our responsibility to record, to interpret and to raise public awareness about tribal history. This effort was long overdue.”
This is the first UMD building to be named for Maryland’s Native American heritage; it will feature art, artifacts and other educational materials from the Piscataway people, on whose ancestral lands the university stands today. The name was developed in partnership with Piscataway elders and tribal members, as well as UMD faculty, staff and students, including the American Indian Student Union (AISU).
“Having a beautiful place like this that is being represented and being honored for our ancestors, it means a whole lot,” said AISU treasurer Jeremy Harley ’23, a member of the Piscataway Conoy tribe. “It makes me feel like I have a space here on campus that I can truly say this represents myself, this represents my people, this represents my family.”
Yahentamitsi is part of the new Heritage Community, which includes Pyon-Chen Hall, which opened in August, and Johnson-Whittle Hall, which like the dining hall will open in 2022. Each building’s name…