United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck celebrated the upcoming construction of a new building with a ground-breaking ceremony and blessing on Tuesday morning.

The tribal college will build a new science and technology center in what is now a field off Burleigh Avenue south of the UTTC campus. The audience and special guests sat under a white tent at the approximate location of the new building.

The buildings on the new campus will be situated in a circle, UTTC President David Gipp said:"This is the first quadrant," he said. "We will complete it as time goes on."

Construction begins on the building this fall, to be completed in phases, starting with a 16,000-square-foot building that can be added onto. The first phases will cost about $3 million. Eventually, the building will be about 50,000 square feet.

The science and technology center will house the nursing program, criminal justice program and technology programs. It is being built on 135 acres acquired by the college in 2000. Other buildings will eventually provide space for student services and housing.

Julie Cain, the director of the chemical health center at UTTC, provided the invocation along with Russell Gillette, who provided the blessing.

"I'm here to ask for a blessing … we have been praying the last few years to the Creator to look down upon us and help us," Gillette said prior to the blessing. "We have a partnership … it comes to our grandfather, grandparents and parents. We have children here. We have to set an example by being good role models. It does not matter what our ethnic background, because we all have feelings."

Gillette held a container with coals and an offering of tobacco. Thanks was given to the Creator as the people in attendance faced each cardinal direction. Then Gillette walked with the smoking pan in front of each special guest to let them wave the smoke over their heads.

After a prayer song by the UTTC drum group, Gillette then blessed the audience in a similar manner, making his way up each row.

The expansion to the south of United Tribes' campus will help meet the tribal college's future needs for space as enrollment increases. The college turned away 55 families this fall because it did not have space, Gipp said. The college serves between 1,000 and 1,100 students each year and sees yearly enrollment reaching 2,000 students in the coming years.

"We have a growing population," Gipp said about the American Indian community in North Dakota. "Fifty-one percent or better are under 25 years old. The young ones are coming up in our hometowns."

The new building will be completed by 2011.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)