Hoonah’s Heroes
Women Make Movies
New York/Hoonah
$10,000
Hoonah’s Heroes is a feature-length documentary profiling the extraordinary stories of Vietnam-era War veterans from the village of Hoonah, a Tlingit community on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska, about 30 miles west of Juneau. Twenty-eight Tlingit men from Hoonah entered the US Armed Forced during the Vietnam War, adapting their outdoor survival and hunting skills to become expert snipers and infiltrators. All but one of the 28 men survived, making Hoonah not only the American town with the highest per capita enlistment rate in the war but also the town with the highest survival rate of combat soldiers.
Most Hoonah men made their living as commercial salmon fisherman. In the early 1970s, the veterans found that the fishing livelihoods and ways of life which they had grown up with in Hoonah prior to their military experience and expected to return to were no longer possible due to two new fishing restrictions and laws introduced at the time.
Hoonah’s Heroes will explore these and other pivotal moments during the war that affected the rest of their lives, including coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and addiction. Hoonah's Heroes will examine their contemporary lives and probe why so many men from this tiny island fought with pride for a nation they saw as indifferent. The film being directed and produced by New York City independent filmmaker Samantha Farinella.
ICEBOUND
API Arts and Outreach Inc.
New York
$10,000
This 90-minute documentary tells the story of the 1925 Serum Run, in which at least 34 mushers and 150 sled dogs relayed antitoxin across the Alaska wilderness to save the people of Nome from a deadly outbreak of diphtheria. ICEBOUND will be broadcast nationally on PBS as well as on German and French television. The filmmakers interviewed more than 30 elders, scholars, mushers, journalists and descendants of those who participated in the Serum Run.
Kodiak’s Filipino Community Stories
Kodiak Historical Society/Baranov Museum
Kodiak
$8,500
Although Filipino-Americans have lived on Kodiak Island for more than 150 years and now constitute 35 percent of Kodiak’s population, until this project there have been no museum exhibits or published research on the island celebrating and exploring their culture and stories.
The Baranov Museum, in collaboration with the Filipino American Association of Kodiak, is engaging high-school students in ethnography and digital storytelling about the history of Filipino-Americans on Kodiak, culminating in a museum exhibit during National Filipino American History Month in October 2012. A digital story kiosk will permanently display the stories at the museum after the temporary exhibit is completed.
The Alutiiq Word of the Week Book
Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository
Kodiak
$8,483
This project will result in the publication of a 276-page paperback volume compiling the complete set of 458 cultural lessons from the Alutiiq Museum’s award-winning education program, Alutiiq Word of the Week. The book will also include an introduction to the Alutiiq language plus about 50 previously unpublished historic photographs from the museum’s archives.
THE DEFENDERS OF ALASKA NATIVE COUNTRY
Perseverance Theatre
Juneau
$8,000
Supports the development of “THE DEFENDERS OF ALASKA NATIVE COUNTRY,” a new play by Tlingit/Inupiaq playwright Ishmael Hope that focuses on the story William Paul, an Alaska Native leader who for more than five decades was instrumental in the Native civil rights and land claims social justice movements in Alaska.
Dena’ianq’ Huch’ulyeshi: The Denai’ina Way of Living Catalog
Anchorage Museum Association
Anchorage
$8,000
Dena’ianq’ Huch’ulyeshi: The Denai’ina Way of Living will be a catalog to accompany the first-ever comprehensive exhibition on Dena’ina history and culture, organized by the Anchorage Museum in partnership with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and scheduled to open in May 2013. One thousand hardcover and 3,000 softcover copies of the catalog will be printed.
Documenting Art Technologies
Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum
Sitka
$8,000
Through interviews and photography this project will document three Alaska Native artistic technologies – fish skin processing, gut processing, and bentwood hat processing – during public workshops held in Sitka by master artists. This will form the basis for three new technical papers in the “Concepts” series published by the Alaska State Museum.
Traveling By Story Through Copper River Country
Copper River Watershed Project
Cordova
$8,000
This grant funds the recording of oral history interviews of individuals living in the Copper River basin, including original homesteaders and the last generation of Ahtna language speakers. Interviews will be posted to the Copper River Watershed Project’s Tour Our Watershed website.
Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words
KTOO – Capitol Community Broadcasting
Juneau
$7,500
In 2004 noted Alaska historian Dr. Terrence Cole conducted extensive on-camera interviews with living delegates of the Alaska Constitutional Convention (November 8, 1955 – February 6, 1956) as well as individuals who worked at the convention. Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words will digitize and archive these interviews as an oral history collection at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Film Archives. Additionally, Juneau-based public broadcasting network KTOO will use the interviews to create a ten-part television series that will be broadcast statewide, added to the Alaska Film Archives collection, and housed on the web as free video-on-demand programs along with the full interview transcripts. DVD copies of the interviews will be made available for libraries, schools and state agencies.
People, Place & Parkland: Oral Histories of Pre- and Post-Park Wrangell St. Elias National Park
Wrangell Mountains Center
$7,550
McCarthy
This project will help complete the oral history record of Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve, the largest national park in the United States, by focusing on perspectives that are underrepresented in the existing record. Specifically, the project will focus on individuals whose familiarity with the area predates the establishment of the park in 1980.
Moose Jaw’s Cabin
Alaska Children’s Institute for the Performing Arts
Kenai
$7,305
“Moose Jaw’s Cabin” will be a four-episode children’s television series with each episode exploring a different time period in Alaska’s history and highlighting important events and individuals. The episodes will cover, in order: Russian America (The Baranov era); the Alaska Gold Rush; the history of Alaska aviation; and the contributions of Alaska Natives to the state’s development. The episodes will be hosted by Moose Jaw, an old sourdough who lives in a cabin that has a magic door leading back in the time. “Moose Jaw’s Cabin” will air on KTUU-TV on Saturday mornings during NBC’s children’s programming.
To view a trailer for the series click here.
Formline Interpretation Project
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Juneau
$7,000
Sealaska Heritage Institute is creating a 30-page booklet titled An Interpretive Guide to Northwest Coast Formline. Using a combination of new illustrations and archived photos, the booklet will teach basic interpretation of traditional Northwest Coast art produced by Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and other indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European contact to present. It will cover the history of formline as well as characteristic shapes and colors, and clan crests as proprietary intellectual property. The booklet will be distributed free to regional schools and libraries. A PDF version will be available for free download on the Sealaska Heritage Institute website.
Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference
Kenai Peninsula College
Homer
$7,000
The annual Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference provides writers, students and literary enthusiasts with an opportunity to explore the art and process of creative writing and contemporary literature while fostering connections among writers, editors, agents and the reading public. The 2012 conference will be held June 8-12 in Homer and will feature 18 nationally recognized authors of nonfiction, poetry and fiction from Alaska and the Lower 48. Barry Lopez, arguably the nation’s premiere nature writer, will be the keynote presenter. Lopez won a National Book Award for his non-fiction work Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.
The Peratrovich Legacy
League of Women Voters Alaska Educational Fund
Juneau
$7,000
This project will purchase DVDs of For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska for distribution to middle and high schools, University of Alaska Southeast facilities, and libraries in Juneau and throughout Southeast Alaska. This 2009 PBS documentary film, which was funded in part by the Alaska Humanities Forum, brings to life the remarkable story of Alaska’s civil rights movement – the inspiring story of Alaska Natives who, through non-violent social change, overcame prejudice and bigotry to win justice for all Alaskans. The Peratrovich Legacy (named after civil rights activists Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich) will also provide a discussion guide for teachers and moderators to be collaborative with the film.
Koyukuk River Traditional Place Names: Hughes to Koyukuk
Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association
Anchorage/Husila
$7,000
This project will map traditional Koyukon Athabascan place names and document their meaning and history of use. Place names and their significance were gleaned from numerous oral history interviews conducted in the Athabascan villages of Husila and Koyukok last September. These interviews will be transcribed, summarized and then archived by individual and community. Follow-up interviews for needed clarification will be conducted in Husila. Final products will include a coffee table atlas to be distributed to communities, schools and organizations in the region.
20th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference
Prince William Sound Community College
Valdez
$6,000
Every summer the Last Frontier Theater Conference gathers around 300 playwrights, actors, directors and theater enthusiasts from near and far to spend a week immersed in classes, readings of new plays, panel discussions, and performances. Featured artists at this year’s conference will include internationally produced Australian playwright Timothy Daly; Artist Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts Peter Ellenstein; University of Alaska Fairbanks Assistant Professor of Directing Stephan Golux; Founding Artistic Director of the Circle Repertory Company Marshall Mason; and Alaska playwright Dawson Moore;
Homer Communities of Memory Project Jukebox
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks/Homer
$5,000
In 1996 the Alaska Humanities Forum sponsored the Communities of Memory Project that held meetings in towns across the state where residents shared their remembrances about the history of their community and the qualities that made life there special. This 2012 grant will support the production of an on-line interactive program using ten oral history testimonies form the 1996 Homer Community of Memory project. These stories will be added to the existing Communities of Memories Jukebox website and available in digital form in the Oral History Collection at Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Prince William Sound Museum Exhibit Model Construction
Prince William Sound Economic Development District
Whittier
$5,000
Funds the construction of state-of-the-art scale models of aircraft, warships and submarines pertaining to the history of World War II and the Cold War in Alaska, 1941 - 1991. Models will include a 1/72nd scale Soviet Tupolev TU-95 Bear long-range strategic bomber and a 1/48th scale model of a U.S. F4E Phantom fighter jet for the “Cold War Over Alaska” exhibit, and a 1/350th scale model of the WWII-era U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier made of 433 highly detailed parts.
Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes and Clans
Tlingit Readers, Inc.
Sitka/Juneau
$5,000
Bringing together Native and non-Native cultural experts, students and scholars in a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural atmosphere, the “Clan Conference” concept was pioneered by the late writer and educator Andy Hope III in 1993 in Haines/Klukwan. The 2012 conference will feature presenters speaking on linguistics, archaeology, cultural anthropology, ethnohistory, indigenous law and other topics.
Sitka Lutheran Church Oral History Project
Sitka Lutheran Church
Sitka
$4.536
In the 1970s and 1980s, project director Harvey Brandt interviewed Sitka Lutheran Church congregants to record an oral history of Sitka. This project will preserve this oral history by digitizing 30 VHS tapes and 40 audiocassette tapes of edited interviews onto archival quality DVD/CDs. Mr. Brandt will also conduct follow-up interviews to clarify selected issues concerned the 1966 fire that destroyed most of downtown Sitka, including the Sitka Lutheran Church archives. Copies of the DVD/CDs will be sent to the Alaska Historical Society, Sitka Historical Society, Kettleson Library, Sitka Lutheran Church Archives and the Library of Congress.
Alaska History Ledgers Digitizing and Transcribing: Lost Aleutian Logbooks 1875-1907
J. Pennelope Goforth
Anchorage
$4,470
Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) agents in the Aleutian Islands kept detailed logbooks chronicling their maritime fur trading with the Aleutian people. As part of this project about 700 fragile pages contained in six tattered ACC ledgers will be scanned, digitized, transcribed and archived in keyword searchable PDF format. Each page will also be scanned and saved as a high-resolution tagged information file (.tiff).
Traveling Exhibition of “When Crab Was King: Faces of the Kodiak King Crab Fishery 1950 – 1982.”
Kodiak Maritime Museum
Kodiak
$4,000
The photography exhibit “When Crab Was King: Faces of the Kodiak King Crab Fishery” had a highly successful run at the Kodiak Maritime Museum last year. This grant supports the creation of a traveling version of the exhibit, including a cell phone audio tour, which will be shown at museums and cultural centers throughout Alaska.
Alaska Native Hybrid (working title)
Rob Kinneen
Anchorage
$2,000
Directed by Tlingit chef Rob Kinneen, a proponent of using local, indigenous foods in groundbreaking Alaska cuisine, Alaska Native Hybrid will be a documentary based on a series of webisodes (short online documentaries) designed to inspire young Alaskans around the issue of cultural identity, using modern takes on traditional food as a means of opening dialogue.
