Projects Will Support Indigenous Heritage, Culture, and Knowledge

Washington, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced the FY24 recipients of its Native American/Native Hawaiian (NANH) Museum Services Program. The grant program provides up to $250,000 in funding to support Native American Tribes and organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians in sustaining Indigenous heritage, culture, and knowledge. This year, 18 institutions have been awarded a total of $3,772,000.

Since 2005, IMLS has awarded more than 29 million dollars in support of 470 projects to assist Native peoples in providing museum services to their communities. These funds have supported exhibitions, educational services and programs, workforce professional development, organizational capacity building, community engagement, language preservation, and collections stewardship.

IMLS has continuously adapted the program to reflect the changing needs of the Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities it serves. Most recently, in response to community feedback, IMLS increased the maximum funding amount per project from $100,000 to $250,000. The new threshold aims to provide grantees with the funding necessary to complete larger, more complex projects. Demand for NANH funding has also increased – this year the program received a record number of applications requesting a total of $11,751,016.

“For two decades, the Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program has provided Indigenous communities with essential funding to preserve, share, and advance their cultural traditions so that Native peoples can tell their own stories and build even stronger foundations for their future generations,” said Acting IMLS Director Cyndee Landrum. “This year’s unprecedented number of applications indicates that demand for this program is growing and demonstrates the high standard of excellence amongst Indigenous heritage organizations nationwide.”

All awarded NANH projects can be found on the IMLS website. Three of this year’s awardees are detailed below:

• Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe - The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan’s Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways will digitize Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School decimal files located at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Chicago, Illinois to increase accessibility to these historical documents. Project staff will conduct multiple trips to the NARA facility to digitize the records related to the Mount Pleasant Indian Boarding School and the Great Lakes Indian Agency. The digital files will be cross-referenced with the Tribe’s existing boarding school student database, the accompanying metadata will be updated, and the records will be added to the Ziibiwing repository for community use. This project will result in increased access to these records for Tribal members, descendants of those who attended the school, and the public, helping to increase awareness and provide a deeper understanding of what happened in this boarding school.

• Metlakatla Indian Community - The Metlakatla Indian Community will conduct a language preservation project to address the loss of fluent Sm’ algyax speakers, which is now a critically endangered language of the Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) people, with just one fluent speaker remaining in Metlakatla. Project activities include hiring a language mentor and a language student; acquiring the technology needed to archive the language and learning aids; and producing audio archives, training, and educational materials. The mentor and student will participate in community language classes throughout the project, as well as teach other paid and volunteer students. The Cultural Heritage Department will also host language immersion events featuring intensive language classes. As a result of these services and programming, Tribal members will have improved audio archives, increased knowledge of the Sm’ algyax language, and deeper cultural connections and understanding.

• Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation - The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center will improve its visitor experience by updating digital media technology in five galleries and two media kiosks and creating digital content for a new permanent exhibit featuring Pequot female leaders. This project will remediate outdated and failing theater systems, as well as generate new content that celebrates the matriarchal story of the Pequot people. In collaboration with consultants, museum staff will acquire equipment and materials, install and test the new technology, and convert video content to new formats. The project team will also gather oral histories from contemporary female leaders and develop video interviews to incorporate into the final exhibition. As a result, museum visitors will have increased access to museum content, and Pequot language, history, and cultural practices will be better preserved for future generations.

The Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program is the first IMLS Museum Services program to announce its FY24 awardees. Recipients of the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture, American Latino Museum Internship and Fellowship Initiative, 21st Century Museum Professionals Program, Inspire! Grants for Small Museums, Museums for America,Museums Empowered, and National Leadership Grants for Museums programs will be announced later this summer.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.