Abstract
The University of Idaho is a land grant university which is located on traditional Nez Perce lands. Located in the city of Moscow, Idaho the university is located with indigenous tribes surrounding it in all directions. Over the past several decades the university has worked to create relationships with the surrounding tribes through collaborative projects. Through these relationships the university has demonstrated a desire to recruit indigenous students and makes continued efforts to improve retention rates among these students. The most recent of these efforts is a collaborative project to set aside space for a sweat lodge for the university indigenous community. In this paper I seek to examine this recent process for possible barriers in communication which if addressed could work towards strengthening the relationships between the U of I and its surrounding native communities as well as its own community of native students and faculty while working to continue the goals of native student recruitment and retention.