Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum

The Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum will complete a professional collections assessment and environmental assessment to strengthen the long-term preservation of its ethnographic, photographic, and archival holdings. Project activities include collaborating with a qualified conservator and an environmental specialist to conduct technical evaluations that will determine current collection conditions, document environmental conditions, and establish the baseline information needed to identify preservation risks and plan future storage and facility improvements. Project results will include the establishment of baseline preservation data, the identification of urgent and long-term preservation needs, and strengthened institutional capacity for collections care. The primary beneficiaries of this project are the museum’s collections and the Sicangu Lakota community, which relies on the institution to safeguard cultural materials and ensure their accessibility for education, research, and cultural continuity.