All Projects

To prepare a comprehensive plan for the renovation and preservation of the Bigfork City Hall, eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

To design, produce, and install historical markers for National Register properties in the City of Birchwood Village.

To design, produce, and install historical markers in the City of Birchwood Village.

The Council on Black Minnesotans and the Humanities Center will coordinate a Cultural Relations Summit for Minnesotans of Africans descent. The summit will celebrate culture traditions through instructional demonstrations, guided tours, and visual arts; plan for cultural institutions’ sustainability; and strengthen cultural connections through DNA technology. A web-based cultural portal and a video documentary on the contributions of Minnesotans of African will discover and preserve cultural traditions and enhance relations in Minnesota.

To document in eight oral history interviews the history of Black farmers in the State of Minnesota.

To document in 15 oral history interviews the history of African American educators in Minnesota.

Humanities Center support will enable More Than A Single Story to respond to multiple requests for support in dealing with personal and cultural trauma with the conference Black Writers Healing Black Writers(working title). In times of great stress, such as the COVID experience and the murder of George Floyd, artists go to their creativity to heal. This project brings that opportunity to Black writers who are reeling from continuing violence that impacts that communities.

Black Table Arts operates a community-driven, cooperative space by and for Black artists in South Minneapolis. Our summer Youth Cooperative Lab will expand access to this space to high school students as we excavate the tradition of arts organizing through Black literature and protest writing. Through workshops with organizers, educators, and artists, the young writers will draw inspiration from the history of arts activism while improving their own writing craft and developing as changemakers.

Mizna, the journal of Arab/Southwest Asian & North African (SWANA) literature and visual art, is doing a special Black Takeover issue, to be published in Winter 2022. As an ongoing commitment we have made to examine our representation of our Black community, we are approaching this issue in a completely different way by giving over our journal space to a Black team to take the journal through the full production process, led by guest editor Safia Elhillo, the acclaimed Sudanese American poet.

This project will expand the Truth Telling Series that collected, preserved, and shared suppressed Dakota and Anishinaabe histories through community oral narratives. The project will document untold and silenced narratives from Black Minnesotans in urban and rural communities to develop new and easily accessible curriculum for grades Pre-K-6, in partnership with numerous BIPOC scholars, elders, and community partners. The project includes a collaborative story collection. The stories will be collected, documented, and written.

To contract with qualified professionals to prepare construction documents for the roof of the Blue Valley Creamery, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Language and Culture Resource Center to locate and centralize the existing resources relating to the Bois Forte Language and culuture. To also provide Bois Forte community with opportunities to learn the language and culture, not only in an edcuational setting but also in a hands on setting while engaging cultural practices.

1. Planning a language camp 2. Purchase new equipment needed to focus on retaining the language and ensuring its survival into the future 3. Recording elders speaking, teaching, and doing cultural activities in the language

1. Planning a language camp 2. Purchase new equipment needed to focus on retaining the language and ensuring its survival into the future 3. Recording elders speaking, teaching, and doing cultural activities in the language

1. Increased head start/day care curriculum prepared for future years a. Find current and past curriculum to update them b. Identify and visit programs to help model or help increase language and cultural output c. Purchase supplies/curriculum to be used for future years 2. Increased participation and language usage from adults a. Maintaining current language programs available b. Increasing teacher fluency c. Purchase giveaways or materials to be handed out 3. Teacher buy-in and work flows a. Incorporating training days for staff b. Increase language usage while at work c.

1. Increased head start/day care language and culture a. Increased cultural activities and language by kids b. Identify and visit programs to help model or help increase language and cultural output c. Purchase supplies/curriculum to be used for future years 2. Increased participation and language usage from adults a. Maintaining current language programs available b. Increasing participating adult fluency through testing materials c. New recommendations for language hand outs. 3. Teacher buy-in and work flows a. Incorporating training days for staff b.

Bois Forte Tribal Leaders have acknowledged the potential loss of our Native Language and unique Ojibwe dialect. With a mere 6 fluent speaker's remaining, it is critical that we utilize creative methods to preserve the language. This project will provide funds to purchase appropriate equipment that will be used to record elders as they tell the history of Bois Forte and teach of the clan system and identify families. The recordings will preserve their knowledge for future generation.

To increase the Ojibwe language fluency, proficiency and literacy fo the Bois Forte Indian Community through partnerships with existing language perservation programs to develop a curriculum for pre-K learners, and K-6th grade.

Bois Forte Tribal Language Program will work during the FY25 to build background in the Ojibwe langauage and culture for our Tribal Entities, Departments, and Band/Community Members. To achieve proficiency in Ojibwe language for our Tribal Entities, Departments, and Band/Community Members, we will continue to host Ojibwe Langauge sessions both in person and virtually. Bois Forte Tribal Government Language Program wll plan to host cultural events using Ojibwe language in instruction.

Bois Forte Tribal Language Program will work during the FY25 to build background in the Ojibwe langauage and culture for our Tribal Entities, Departments, and Band/Community Members. To achieve proficiency in Ojibwe language for our Tribal Entities, Departments, and Band/Community Members, we will continue to host Ojibwe Langauge sessions both in person and virtually. Bois Forte Tribal Government Language Program wll plan to host cultural events using Ojibwe language in instruction.

St. Bonifacius is the only town in Minnesota with a real Nike-Hercules missile in its park, commemorating the nearby missile base that stood from 1959 to 1974. This is a rare display; as only l5-20 missiles still exist from the thousands placed around 20 U.S. cities during the Cold War. The project designed and manufactured two outdoor interpretive panels to tell the story of this missile and missile base within the larger context of the Cold War, a chapter in U.S. History increasingly invisible to younger people.

To hire qualified professionals to publish a book on the history of 20th century Jewish immigrant culture in Minnesota.

To hire a qualified professional to complete a manuscript on the history of Japanese American college students in World War II Minnesota.

A 3-volume boxed set of "Patriots of Brooklyn: Suppressors of the Great Slave Rebellion" was published by the Brooklyn Historical Society. The books document the historic role that 200+ soldiers from Brooklyn Township played in the American Civil War. The books are a valuable reference resource for local residents and historians.

A professional quality book documenting the stories of refugees in Minnesota is now in print. The book, "This Much I Can Tell You", was self-published by the Minnesota Council of Chuches Refugee Service. It is a compilation of eighteen stories told by local refugees, from nine different countries, who have resettled in Minnesota after fleeing their country of origin. The 980 books printed through this project make important refugee histories accessible to a wider Minnesota audience.

To add 35 standard Minnesota history titles to broaden public accessibility.

To hire qualified professionals to publish Howard Greene's journals about the north woods of Minnesota.

To construct a historically accurate account and thorough context of the 1995 Hunger Strike.