September 2006 Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program
Grant Announcement

Alaska  |  Arizona  |  California  |  Connecticut  |  Hawaii  |  Maine  |  Michigan  |  Mississippi 

New Mexico  |  New York  |  Oklahoma  |  Oregon  |  South Dakota  |  Washington  |  Wyoming 

Alaska

Hoonah Indian Association - Hoonah, AK
Award Amount: $49,750
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Mary Beth Moss
(907)945-3545x31; mbmoss@hiatribe.org
P.O. Box 602
Hoonah, AK 99829-0602

Project Title: "Building Capacity for Collections Management at Hoonah Cultural Heritage Center"
The Hoonah Indian Association will use funds to implement a number of conservation and collections management related improvements. A consultant will be hired to provide guidance and training to the Hoonah Cultural Heritage Center’s tribal curator. Together, they will accession and catalog approximately 120 cultural objects that are currently in their possession and will make duplicates of approximately 200 audio and video recordings. The contractor will also assist the curator in the creation and implementation of a preventive conservation plan, and will complete condition reports for all of the cataloged objects. In addition, the Hoonah Indian Association will also purchase a computer and a software program to create an electronic collections management database that will maintain accurate records information.

McGrath Native Village Council - McGrath, AK
Award Amount: $49,379
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Helen Vanderpool
Acting Tibal Administrator
(907)524-3023; helenvhf@mcgrathalaska.net
P.O. Box 134
McGrath, AK 99627

Project Title: "Stimulating Historical and Cultural Awareness Through Enhanced Museum Services"
The McGrath Native Village Council will use its grant to hire a part-time staff member to oversee and develop a number of programs and activities for the McGrath Museum. These activities will include the coordination of a volunteer training program, the development of an education component to include local businesses and community groups, the research and design of two new exhibits, and the writing of grant proposals for more resources that will benefit the museum and its audiences. Funds will also be used to invite local Native artists to display their work in a newly constructed exhibit case, involving the community on a more personal level.

Seldovia Village Tribe - Seldovia, AK
Award Amount: $50,000
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Crystal Collier
CEO
(907)234-7898; ccollier@svt.org
PO Drawer L
260 Main
Seldovia, AK 99663

Project Title: "Improving Our Museum Collections and Displays and Creating a Strategic Plan"
This grant will enable professionals from the Pratt Museum to provide training to the staff of the Seldovia Village Tribe’s Visitors Center and Museum, which opened in 2004 without a formally trained staff versed in museum operations or collections. Since then the Pratt Museum has assisted the staff with the development of exhibition labels and object handling techniques. This project will further cultivate that relationship in order to promote professional museum operations. Three Pratt Museum staff members will provide training in collections management, exhibition development, strategic plan development, and programming. With this training, staff members and volunteers will begin cataloging collections, re-working exhibition displays, conducting objects research, and drafting an initial museum strategic plan for Tribal Council approval.

Arizona

Hopi Tribe of Arizona - Kykotsmovi, AZ
Award Amount: $45,399
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Susan Secakuku
Principle
(928)737-2510; secakuku@hopitelecom.net
P.O. Box 123
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039

Project Title: "Homol'ovi Interpretive Project"
The Hopi Tribe of Arizona will use its grant for a number of events and activities aimed at sustaining and interpreting Hopi culture. A component of the Homol’ovi Interpretive Program, funded activities will include a garden project that will showcase Hopi terrace garden techniques; one-day workshops that include hands-on activities and lectures; Hopi artist demonstrations; and the Suvoyuki Festival, an annual event that highlights the Homol’ovi site through dance, tours, speakers, and demonstrations. In addition, funds will be used by the Hopi Tribe of Arizona to inaugurate a new internship program, in which an intern will work full-time for ten weeks with permanent staff,gaining valuable professional development.

California

Hoopa Valley Tribe - Hoopa, CA
Award Amount: $22,080
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Mr. Silis-chi-tawn Jackson
Curator
(530)625-4110; hvtmus@pcweb.net
P.O. Box 1348
Hoopa, CA 95546-1348

Project Title: "Na:tini-xwe e:n'it xinewh-xwe awhniwh (Descendents of the True Hoopa People)"
The Hoopa Tribal Museum will use its grant to videotape the stories of one of the last surviving old-style Hupa language speakers. Located in the center of the Hoopa Valley Tribe reservation, the museum was created to preserve and share the rich culture and history of the native people of northern California. The museum will record the stories, told in the Hupa language, and the storyteller will work with ethnographers to make corrections in the transcripts. Museum staff will also travel to sites associated with tribal history and stories and receive hands-on technical training at the Indigenous Language Institute.

Yurok Tribe - Klamath, CA
Award Amount: $50,000
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Mrs. Buffy McQuillen
Repatriation/Collection Manager
(707)482-1350; buffy@yuroktribe.nsn.us
P.O. Box 1027
Klamath, CA 95548

Project Title: "Yurok Tribe Enhancement of Musem Services Grant"
The Yurok Tribe will use its grant to hire a new staff member to work with its Repatriation Manager to update existing collection policies, institute new policies and procedures for disaster preparedness and risk assessment, and create a procedure manual for tribal staff to follow.Funds will also be used for training the new staff member and the Repatriation Manager in a new database system. Once trained, the staff will be able to transfer the old tribal database to the new system, improving the tribe’s ability to preserve and provide access to its collections.

Connecticut

Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut - Mashantucket, CT
Award Amount: $49,970
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Dr. Russ Handsman
Project Director
(860)396-6960; rhandsman@mptn-nsn.gov
2 Matt's Path
P.O. Box 3180
Mashantucket, CT 06338

Project Title: "Science Learning and Cultural Wisdom: An Initiative in Informal Science Learning"
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center will use its grant to continue the museum's highly successful Pathways Project, which deepens middle-school students' understanding of and interest in science by engaging them in hands-on, field-based experiences in archaeology. Key elements of the initiative include a two week-long summer programs for Pequot children and their non-Native peers to involve them in ongoing research programs in archaeology and field ecology; collaboration between scientists and educators in the tribe's Natural Resource Department, and scientists and educators at the museum; staff capacity building in the area of informal science education both at the museum and with other tribal scientists and educators; and formative evaluation of the project's different components.

Hawaii

PA'I Foundation - Aiea, HI
Award Amount: $45,485
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Victoria Holt-Takamine
(808)754-2301; vickyt@hawaii.rr.com
98-614 Kaimu Loop
Aiea, HI 96701-4407

Project Title: "MAMo: Maoli Arts Month"
The PA’I Foundation will use its grant to support three featured events in a month-long Native Hawaiian arts festival titled Maoli Arts Month, MAMo. PA’I is organizing the festival in partnership with the Hawai’i State Art Museum and the Bishop Museum. The first IMLS-funded activity is a Friday Gallery Walk, which will highlight over fifty Native Hawaiian artists in nine different galleries in downtown Honolulu. Next is a children’s art day, featuring hands-on activities that focus on Native Hawaiian art and cultural practices. The third activity is a two-day arts market hosted by the Bishop Museum, which will bring to a close the month-long festival. The market will feature over thirty-five Native Hawaiian artists and include food and entertainment.

Maine

Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine/Indian Township Reservation - Princeton, ME
Award Amount: $50,000
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Mr. Donald Soctomah
Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
(207)796-5533; soctomah@ainop.com
P.O. Box 301
Princeton, ME 04668-0070

Project Title: "Passamaquoddy Cultural and Heritage Center"
The Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine-Indian Township Reservation will use its grant to contract with a conservator to assess the museum’s collection of cultural artifacts, write a long-term collections preservation plan, and prioritize conservation projects for objects in need. The tribe will also buy display cases, audiovisual equipment, and theatre chairs for its recently opened tribal museum.

Michigan

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians - Harbor Springs, MI
Award Amount: $41,113
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Winnay Wemigwase
(231)242-1453; wwemigwase@ltbbodawa-nsn.gov
7500 Odawa Circle
Harbor Springs, MI 49740

Project Title: "Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Museum Services Enhancement Project"
The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians will use its grant to increase their electronic storage capabilities and produce at least thirty-six virtual exhibits. Displaying objects on the tribe’s website will make the collections more accessible to community members as well as the general public. These virtual museum exhibits will be the primary responsibility of a part-time technician who will be hired using grant funds. Funds will also allow the Director of the Archives and Records Department and the technician to go to the annual IMLS WebWise conference in Washington, DC , to increase their knowledge of web-based museum services.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan - Mount Pleasant, MI
Award Amount: $47,122
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Bonnie Ekdahl
Director, Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways
(989)775-4750; bekdahl@sagchip.org
7070 East Broadway Road
Mount Pleasant, MI 48858

Project Title: "Anishinabemowin - Speaking Our Language....a language preservation project"
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan will use its grant to record the last remaining fluent speakers of its dialect to preserve the language for future generations. The Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways, a cultural learning center of the tribe has welcomed more than 42,000 visitors since it first opened in May 2004. One of the ongoing efforts supported by the center has been the preservation and dissemination of the tribe’s Ojibwe dialect to community members. The funded project was devised as a result of a language needs assessment the tribe undertook in 2005. In addition to the recordings, four multi-generational immersion workshops will be developed and implemented.

Mississippi

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians - Choctaw, MS
Award Amount: $21,792
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Martha Spencer
Director, Choctaw Museum
(601)650-1687; mspencer@choctaw.org
P.O. Box 6010, Choctaw Branch
Choctaw, MS 39350

Project Title: "Choctaw Basketry Video"
Staff members from the Choctaw Museum and the Choctaw Video Program will work together to produce a fifteen minute documentary video about traditional Choctaw basket making, providing supplemental information for an existing photograph and text exhibit at the museum. Funds will be used to research archival material, such as still photographs, audiotapes, and video interviews. These sources of historical documentation will be mixed with input from contemporary Choctaw basket makers to create a video that is both historically and culturally relevant. In addition to using the video at the exhibit site, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians will also make it available upon request to individuals and groups unable to visit the museum.

New Mexico

Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation - Mescalero, NM
Award Amount: $49,494
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Mr. Ellyn Bigrope
(505)464-9254; bigrope@zianet.com
P.O. Box 227
Mescalero, NM 88340

Project Title: "Mescalero Apache Documentaries"
The Mescalero Apache Tribe will use its grant to commission the noted Hopi film director Victor Masayesva to develop a series of five to eight short documentaries on the Apache experience. The cultural center administered by the tribe is a small facility with little space for the display and interpretation of cultural artifacts. These documentaries will enable the cultural center to present a wider array of Apache materials from a culturally appropriate perspective. Knowledge and memories of Apache elders will be taped from their own perspective, thereby preserving cultural and historical recollections that are rapidly disappearing. A community member will be hired to apprentice under Mr. Masayesva to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to produce additional films for the tribe and cultural center.

Pueblo of San Juan - San Juan Pueblo, NM
Award Amount: $45,880
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Mrs. Christy J. Sturm
(505)852-3477; christysanjuan@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1099
San Juan Pueblo, NM 87566-1099

Project Title: "Ohkay Owingeh First Capital Heritage Center and Musem"
The Pueblo of San Juan will use this grant to complete the master plan for the Ohkay Owingeh First Capital Heritage Center and Museum. The new museum will serve all Pueblo of San Juan tribal members and the surrounding communities when it opens. The facility will focus upon multi-cultural issues and integration of the Pueblo and Hispanic cultures that have been living together for generations. The master plan will provide the Tribal Council, community, and others with a solid course of action needed to move the project to completion. Architectural plans and illustrations, as well as exhibition themes, designs, and costs will be developed and detailed within the document, which will be used for future museum development.

New York

Oneida Nation of New York - Oneida, NY
Award Amount: $50,000
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Elizabeth Slocum
Development Office, Fraunces Tavern Museum
(212)425-1778x21; 2development@frauncestavernmuseum.org
2037 DreamCatcher Plaza
Oneida, NY 13421-2729

Project Title: "Including Indians in Colonial History"
The Oneida Nation of New York will use its grant to hire a guest curator who will be responsible for the planning, research, and implementation on an exhibition about the role of the Oneidas during the Revolutionary War. The exhibition, which will be held from April to December, 2009, is a collaborative effort with the Fraunces Tavern Museum of New York City. The curator, who will be hired for a two-year period, will acquire relevant loan objects, write wall and object labels, compose an essay to be published in the catalogue and website, and develop educational materials to coincide with lecture speakers.

Oklahoma

Delaware Nation of Oklahoma - Anadarko, OK
Award Amount: $17,417
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Tamara Francis
NAGPRA/Cultural Preservation Director
(405)247-2448; tfrancis@thedelawarenation-nsn.gov
PO Box 825
Anadarko, OK 73005

Project Title: "Delaware Nation Museum Grant 2006"
In order to help preserve the traditions, religious ceremonies, and history of the Lenape people, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma will present seminars on the Big House Ceremony, the Red Score, and the Lenape creation myth; and the Delaware Nation Museum artifacts associated with these traditions. Noted Delaware Nation historians, elders, and crafts people will present the educational seminars, which will be videotaped and preserved in the museum for future reference by museum staff members, community members, and scholars. Project funding will facilitate the purchase of a video camera, software, and computer printer.

Caddo Indian Tribe - Binger, OK
Award Amount: $38,013
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Ms. Stacey Halfmoon
Interim Director, Caddo Heritage Museum
(405)656-2344x209; museum@caddonation-nsn.gov
PO Box 487
Binger, OK 73009

Project Title: "Caddo Nation Heritage Museum Inventory/Collections Enhancement Project"
The goal of the Caddo Heritage Museum’s project is to conduct a comprehensive physical inventory of all collection items and create a museum inventory database. The museum was established by tribal law in April of 2000 for the purpose of preserving and perpetuating Caddo history, culture, and traditions by collecting, conserving, interpreting, archiving, exhibiting, and disseminating knowledge of the Caddo people. Since that time, the museum’s collections have steadily grown and now encompass approximately 2,000 artifacts. The museum continues to acquire new donations, including entire archaeological collections. This grant will help the Caddo Heritage Museum to meet the challenges associated with its rapid expansion.

Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma - Ponca City, OK
Award Amount: $29,243
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Marilyn Epley
Tribal Planner
(580)762-3230; ptgrants@yahoo.com
20 White Eagle Drive
Ponca City, OK 74601

Project Title: "Ponca Tribal Museum"
The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma will use its grant to purchase exhibit cases for the display of memorabilia of Clyde Warrior, a deceased tribal member and Indian activist. The exhibit will be part of a newly constructed museum. A consultant will be hired to design, arrange, and write text for the exhibit. The grant will also be used for classes on shawl making, shinny stick making, drum and flute making, regalia manufacturing, ribbon work, and bead work, as well as language classes for men and women, and youths and adults.

Oregon

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation - Pendleton, OR
Award Amount: $42,900
Grant Category: Enhancing Museum Services

Contact: Mr. Randall Melton
(541)966-1985; randall.melton@tamastslikt.org
P.O. Box 638
Pendleton, OR 97801

Project Title: "Vert Collection Storage Project"
This grant will assist in safely and efficiently housing approximately 600 ethnographic objects and 5,000 lithics in the Vert Collection located at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute. The collection represents the material culture of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, which consist of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes. Current shelving will be retrofitted to allow for secure storage of artifacts contaminated with arsenic, mercury, and lead, which were common ingredients in pesticides used to treat artifacts from the late 1800s to the 1960s. Project staff members will attend courses to learn proper handling techniques of contaminated collections as well as collections management principles to assist with the development of policies and procedures to properly manage contaminated collections.

South Dakota

Lower Brule Sioux Tribe - Lower Brule, SD
Award Amount: $49,904
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Mr. Scott Jones
Public Information & Cultural Preservation Officer
(605)473-5561; socky@wcenet.com
P.O. Box 187
Lower Brule, SD 57548

Project Title: "The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Archive Development Project"
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe will establish an archive designed to preserve and manage important records and documents related to the tribe’s identity and history. In order to achieve these goals, funds will be used to purchase new computers, scanners, digital cameras and software, as well as to pay for the services of two consultants who will provide guidance in the establishment of this new archive and database. The tribe seeks to maintain these currently dispersed records in a central location, and will do so by placing the archive under the control of the Public Information and Cultural Preservation Office. The consultants will also be responsible for training the tribal staff to ensure the sustainability of the archive for future use.

Washington

Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation - Marysville, WA
Award Amount: $33,157
Grant Category: Professional Training Applications

Contact: Mr. Henry Gobin
Cultural Resources Manager
(360)651-3310; hgobin@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
6729 Totem Beach Road
Marysville, WA 98271-9714

Project Title: "Tulalip Tribes Curatorial Facility Training"
The Tulalip Tribes will use this grant to hire consultants to train the staff of a museum that is currently being built. The consultants will train staff in collection storage, object handling, archiving, accessioning, cataloging, and information management techniques. Funds will also be used to pay for the Assistant Curator to enroll in the Certificate Program in Museum Studies at the University of Washington, and to support several trips to other tribal museums in the Northwest Coast region.

Makah Indian Tribe - Neah Bay, WA
Award Amount: $49,540
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Janine Bowechop
Executive Director
(360)645-2711; makahmuseum@centurytel.net
P.O. Box 160
Neah Bay, WA 98357

Project Title: "Digital Exhibits"
The Makah Indian Tribe will develop two multi-media exhibits for a proposed historical gallery at the Makah Cultural and Research Center, which was established by the tribe in 1979 to preserve and protect their linguistic, cultural, and archaeological resources. The project will increase the community’s knowledge and understanding of Makah history and culture by adding exhibits that focus on Makah history following contact with non-Natives to its existing pre-contact exhibits. The project will include the development of interactive, bilingual multimedia CDs; this information will also be made available on DVDs for community members who do not own or know how to use a computer. The CDs/DVDs will be disseminated to community members, posted on the Makah Community Portal, and given to the Neah Bay Schools for use in the classroom.

Wyoming

Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation - Fort Washakie, WY
Award Amount: $46,679
Grant Category: Programming Applications

Contact: Ms. Dara Weller
Directed of Gifted and Talented, St. Stephens Indian School
(307)856-4147; dweller@onewest.net
PO Box 508
Ft. Washakie, WY 82514

Project Title: "Voices of the Wind River"
This grant will enable an interactive experience for Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation elders, community members, and students, allowing for the examination and discussion of Arapaho artifacts held by the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. This videoconference project was spurred by the desire of the elders to improve access to Arapaho cultural artifacts scattered in museum collections throughout the world in order to preserve tribal identity and share it with the tribe’s children. Prior to the videoconference, teachers will work with curriculum developers, tribal elders, and community representatives to develop a curriculum aligned to state standards. The Arapaho students who participate in the project will build on the experience by creating their own virtual Arapaho museum and presenting a tour of it to the entire community.