A Navajo medicine man led a cleansing ceremony Thursday in the UA dorm where a student was fatally stabbed a day earlier, putting American Indian students on a path toward healing.
The private ceremony followed the death of 18-year-old Mia J. Henderson, who police say was stabbed by her roommate, Galareka Harrison, who is jailed on a first-degree murder charge. Both are from the Navajo Nation and part of the UA's Native American Young Scholars program, which houses 60 students in Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall.
"In the Navajo tradition it's always appropriate in a tragedy such as this to actually correct the tragedy and make things whole once again," said Manley Begay, director of the UA's Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy in the Udall Center.
"The ceremony is to heal and to cleanse and to move forward in a good way."
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Thomas Yazzie, a traditional medicine man, led the ritual, which was closed to the public. Yazzie's son is also a freshman at the UA.
"In the Navajo culture, the sense of family is very deep. Even though I didn't know her, I think of her like my daughter," said Begay, speaking outside the dorm to describe how the ceremony is intended to help the students.
"When school is just starting and a tragedy like this happens, everybody feels it," he said. "After tonight, the students will move toward a real good path of healing and a real good path of togetherness."
The ceremony began at sunset and was expected to last about four hours, among the shorter Navajo ceremonies, Begay said. Traditional Navajos find the ritual crucial for rehabilitating a building where tragic events occurred.
"It's a ceremony that requires a tremendous amount of solemnness and respect and consideration. It's very private," Begay said. "Even though we're such a distance from the Navajo Nation, there's still a tremendous amount of caring for our students."
The students have to face the task of going to school and doing well in school, Begay said, and are part of each other's support network.
"In the Navajo tradition as well as many Native American tribes, there's a sense of kinship and closeness. When you come to a university like the University of Arizona and you feel like you're a stranger, you reach out to your kin," Begay said. "When you're so far from home, there's a sense of togetherness that's automatically felt."
In the wake of Henderson's, slaying, one student with the Native American Young Scholars program has requested a room transfer and will be accommodated, said university spokesman Johnny Cruz.
