During the 2015 Legislative Session, the Minnesota State Legislature asked the Minnesota Humanities Center to award arts and cultural heritage grants to Ka Joog. Legacy funds are appropriated to the Humanities Center to support such work. A small portion of the appropriation was reserved by the Humanities Center for direct expenses related to administering the grant. Should any portion of this reserve be unused, the difference will be awarded to the respective museum.
The Crow Wing River is a valuable natural resource and forested regions in the watershed are at risk from conversion to cropland and clearing for other uses. In order to maintain the high quality upland that protects the water quality, forestry practices are being encouraged with cost-sharing and education in an effort to manage, protect, and improve existing forest stands.
Most of Hubbard, Todd and Wadena Counties' irrigated acreage consists of highly permeable, low water holding capacity, sandy textured soils overlying shallow and buried sand and gravel aquifers. These aquifers are very susceptible to non-point water quality degradation from land use practices.
Per Minnesota Law, the Minnesota Humanities Center administers the Arts and Cultural Heritage Children's Museum Grants. The Humanities Center uses a portion of the funds to provide grants administration, including overseeing the proposal process, agreement drafting, financial and program monitoring, and reporting.
This program helped to create a legacy of habitat connectivity, public access, and economic vitality based on increased outdoor recreational opportunities in the mid-Minnesota River Watershed.
The Diversity Committee guides MNHS in relation to its strategic priority for diversity and inclusivity. The team meets regularly to discuss current offerings, interactions with various diverse communities and provides services for MNHS to increase cultural competency of staff. The committee activities have emphasized training and development of staff, choosing the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) as an assessment tool to provide a benchmark of the current state of intercultural competency with the plan of reassessing at a later date to gauge improvements.
