Supporting much needed Native Heritage and Cultural Preservation throughout the United States

Washington, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services today announced 33 grants totaling $3,590,463 to support Indian Tribes and organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians.

IMLS received 39 applications through the Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services program requesting $4.9 million in funds.

"The Native American and Native Hawaiian grants announced today will help these institutions support the wellbeing of their communities, educate people on cultural traditions, and preserve their important historical collections," said IMLS Director Crosby Kemper. "We are honored to support the great work they are doing to engage communities and make these cultural riches available."

A list of all projects funded is available in the awarded grants search. Examples include:

• Hui Mauli Ola will partner with Native Hawaiian healing masters to ethically gather, store, organize, curate, and make accessible documents and resources pertaining to traditional Native Hawaiian healing practices via a digital archive. Project activities include developing protocols for ethical data stewardship determined by the Native Hawaiian healing community; collecting and digitizing materials for inclusion in the database; and developing and publishing the digital archive. The project will establish a foundational system of documenting and tracing Native Hawaiian traditional healing knowledge while increasing Native Hawaiian archival infrastructure capacity, benefiting students, the community of Hawai’i, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders.

• The Ilanka Cultural Center will further its mission to educate its community and visitors while perpetuating the traditions, skills, and cultures of the Native Village of Eyak by creating six children's picture books depicting traditional Eyak and Chugach legends. Project staff will hire six Tribal artists to provide illustrations for the legends and will oversee design and publication of approximately 450 copies of the books. The published books will be made available at the Cultural Center, as well as disseminated free of cost throughout the community, including to Tribal households with youth and the Cordova Public Library. As a result of this project, Tribal families will have a new engaging medium for passing down oral traditional knowledge and Tribal artists’ work will be supported and showcased.

• Elk Valley Rancheria will improve the care, management, and long-term preservation of its collection of ethnographic items, lithics and stone tools, documents, and books. Drawing on recommendations from a 2015 conservation survey and assessment, the Tribe will purchase and install museum quality display cases that protect the collections from changes in temperature, relative humidity, and ultraviolet light. Housing the Tribe’s cultural materials, which include over 100 historical baskets, in new cases will preserve them for future generations and enable both Native and non-Native members of the surrounding community to continue to visit and learn about the lifeways, values, and history of Elk Valley Rancheria.

More information about museum grant opportunities can be found on the IMLS website.

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 Twitter.