News Release

National Park Service awards over $603,000 to American Indian Tribes, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiian Organizations

This grant will help stabilize the Noow Hit Tribal House, the last and only surviving example of Tlingit vernacular architecture in the Chilkat Valley, Alaska, a Tlingit stronghold that once had over 75 tribal houses.

Tom Ganner, courtesy of Chilkoot Indian Association

News Release Date: August 28, 2023

Contact: [e-mail]

WASHINGTON - The National Park Service (NPS) announced $603,149 in grants today for 10 projects across the country to support the protection of America’s Native cultures.

“These grants help the National Park Service work with American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native organizations to preserve their cultural heritage and reconnect people with their traditions of the past that help inform their future,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams.

This year’s grants will support projects like:

• The stabilization of the Noow Hit Tribal House for the Chikoot Indian Association in Haines, Alaska. This traditional gathering place for the Tlingit people is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

• The Wyiot Tribe’s workshops to train Tribal citizens in California to become Tribal Monitors, so they can engage in site preservation and public education in a meaningful way.

• The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s plan to conduct Oral Histories of approximately 40 Tribal elders in Kansas to preserve the historical account of the Nation and its people, their cultural heritage and traditional practices.

These important projects are critical to preserving Tribal heritage for future generations. Other projects funded by these grants will locate and identify cultural resources, preserve historic properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places, support comprehensive preservation planning, preserve oral history and cultural traditions, provide training for building a historic preservation program, and support cultural and historic preservation interpretation and education.

Applications for at least $500,000 in 2023 funding will be available in winter 2023. For more information about the grants and the Tribal Heritage Grant program, please visit the Tribal Heritage grants website.

Congress appropriated funding for the Tribal Heritage Grant Program in 2022 through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). The HPF uses revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf to assist with a broad range of preservation projects, mitigating the loss of a nonrenewable resource with the preservation of other irreplaceable resources, without expending tax dollars.

Established in 1977 and authorized at $150 million per year through 2023, the HPF has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments and nonprofit organizations. Administered by the NPS, Congress may appropriate HPF funds to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources.
 

Awards

Location	Project	Grantee	Award
Alaska,Anchorage	Shuyak Island Archaeological Survey	Koniag, Inc.	$74,997
Alaska,Chickaloon	Talkeetna Survey	Chickaloon Native Village	$47,959
Alaska,Haines	Stabilization of the Noow Hit Tribal House	Chilkoot Indian Association	$74,889
Arizona,Scottsdale	Survey of Significant Places: An Integrated Tribal Cultural Landscape Approach	Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community	$74,230
California,Loleta	Wiyot Ancestral Territory Cultural Resource Monitor Training	Wiyot Tribe	$75,000
California,Santa Ysabel	Survey of Ancestral Places	Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians	$49,998
Kansas,Mayetta	Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Oral History Project	Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation	$74,941
Michigan,Mount Pleasant	Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School Pre-preservation Study	Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan	$46,000
Oklahoma,Durant	Pushmataha Hall and Classroom Building at Wheelock Academy Feasibility Studies	Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma	$65,108
Oklahoma,Quapaw	Quapaw Nation Oral History Project	Quapaw Nation	$20,027
6 States		Total	$603,149

For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit the State, Tribal and Local Plans and Grants division website. 

www.nps.gov
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 425 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.