Jessica Garcia Fritz, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Minnesota and Citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Inspires Future Indigenous Designers
For Jessica Garcia Fritz, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Indigenous Design Camp is about more than introducing Native youth to architecture – it’s about creating the opportunities she wishes she’d had as a young designer.
The current percentage of Indigenous architects in the US is extremely low, with estimates suggesting that less than .44% of licensed architects identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the American Institute of Architects. “For many of us, we were the only Indigenous people in our architecture classes. This is about showing Indigenous youth that there’s a collective of Indigenous designers,” Garcia Fritz said. “It’s a way to create the opportunities many of us never had.”
Created in collaboration with architects Sam Olbekson (White Earth Nation of Minnesota Ojibwe) and Mike Laverdure (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), with support from the Minnesota Architecture Foundation and Dunwoody College, Indigenous Design Camp is a week-long program for junior high and high school students that exposes Native youth to the possibilities of a career in architecture. The program is the first of its kind in the U.S.
Garcia Fritz helped to shape the camp’s curriculum, “At Home in the Homelands.” Students designed and built scale models of sleeping spaces, which they later combined into a communal living area.
One of the highlights was the “Smudge Ring” project, where students designed interconnected spaces that reflected Indigenous iconography and encouraged a communal flow of movement. “Individual spaces are talking to each other,” Garcia Fritz explained. “It allows for a certain sequence, movements. But it also has Indigenous spatial relations as well.”
Throughout the week, Garcia Fritz and her fellow facilitators guided students as they explored Indigenous architecture projects, learned design concepts, and translated their ideas into cardboard models. The hands-on work was paired with visits to real-world examples of Indigenous design, showing campers how architecture can serve as both a practical and powerful expression of cultural identity. Students visited the University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture and explored the College of Design’s fabrication shops, which include a woodshop, metal shop, digital fabrication tools, and a materials store.
Now in its second year, the camp is currently open to students in the Twin Cities, but Garcia Fritz and her fellow organizers hope to expand it to reach younger participants, Indigenous nations, and schools across the region.
By weaving together indigenous design principles and architectural practice, Garcia Fritz is helping the next generation imagine – and design – a future shaped by Indigenous voices.
Indigenous Design Camp is made possible by DSGW Architecture, Full Circle Planning + Design, Minnesota Architectural Foundation, SALA Architects, First American Design Studio, Dunwoody College of Technology, and the University of Minnesota College of Design.
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