Iñupiaq men in qayaqs, Noatak, Alaska, circa 1929. Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress Digital Collections.
Crossing the Chilkoot Pass, circa 1898. Courtesy Candy Waugaman and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
The Gold Rush boomtown of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, 1900. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.
April 11, 2025
US Senator Lisa Murkowski
US Senator Dan Sullivan
US Representative Nick Begich
Dear Senators Murkowski, Sullivan and Representative Begich:
We write on behalf of the members of Alaska’s largest statewide historical advocacy organization to protest the president’s devastating cuts to museums, libraries, archives, cultural centers and historical organizations across Alaska, and to enlist your support for the programs that provide federal funds for them. In recent weeks, scores of these Alaska organizations have received notices that congressionally approved programs and awarded grants are being terminated, many mid-stream. These actions will severely impact the preservation of and advocacy for Alaska history across the state.
On March 14, President Trump signed an executive order targeting seven federal organizations for severe budget cuts, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Last year, the IMLS distributed $267 million to libraries and museums around the country. In our state, much of the $1.2 million awarded to organizations is already committed. The cuts, imposed with no public notice, could mean Alaska organizations may be required to pay back the funds and forced to shut down. The majority of the grants are for $10,000 or less in the form of Native American Library Services Basic Grants given to small villages and tribes for library and lending services.
We commend Senator Murkowski for her March letter, with a handful of senators of both political parties, to IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling, reminding the administration that money for museums and libraries is congressionally authorized, and that they expect the executive branch to keep funding those programs in “a manner consistent with these allocations enacted in Fiscal Year 2024.”
It appears the administration and its Department of Government Efficiency are ignoring this letter and the law. Some of the communities and grants which now may be terminated or forced to reimburse include:
Iliamna in Southwest Alaska that received a $10,000 grant to buy books, DVDs, other materials, and shelving to support its existing operations and maintain core library services. It will also pay for a new computer work station.
The Kuskokwim Consortium Library in Bethel received a $10,000 grant to buy reading materials including best sellers, children’s books, magazine subscriptions and its subscription to the Alaska Digital Library.
The Tuzzy Consortium Library, run out of Utqiagvik, provides library services for seven of the eight smaller communities on the North Slope. Without the grants, these tiny libraries will be unable to provide essential services, including summer reading programs, early literacy initiatives, access to educational materials for both children and adults, digital resources such as newspapers, magazines, books, and films and to provide safe spaces for children after school and on weekends.
Another funding source thrown into disarray is the National Endowment for the Humanities, where a team from DOGE placed 80 percent of employees on leave and sent notice to its state-level partners that “all awarded grants — including their five-year General Operating Grants and other program-specific awards — were canceled in their entirety, effective April 1,” according to the Federation of State Humanities Councils. This means the Alaska Humanities Forum will likely have to shut down.
The AHF receives about $1 million dollars from the NEH and matches that money with local dollars. What that pays for are programs across Alaska, from leadership development and mental health support for young people, to money for filmmakers and community forums.
The NEH also funds cultural projects all over the state that few communities are able to support. For example, $345,484 was awarded for a three-year project at the Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska to process, archive and curate 80 boxes of artifacts excavated from a historical Unangan village on the island between 1986 and 1990.
The cut of funding for National History Day threatens the annual contest scheduled for this June. The state contest has just been held, where more than 80 Alaska students submitted projects and an expected 20 students will qualify for the national competition. The Alaska Historical Society administers this program and relies on NEH funding for the program’s website, printed materials and webinars.
Another impact from the NEH budget cut is a grant to the State of Alaska for the National Digital Newspaper Program under which newspapers published between 1836 and 1964 are being digitized and made available to the public on a national database, Chronicling America. More than 300,000 pages of Alaska newspapers have been digitized and selections for another 100,000 pages has been made and were being processed for entry.
Some of Alaska’s larger cultural institutions can continue to operate despite the lost funds, but the cuts will have a significant impact on their programs. For example, the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau lost two grants worth about $300,000 total for studies in how Indigenous peoples in Southeast Alaska harvested, preserved and consumed black seaweed, herring and herring eggs important to subsistence today.
The Alaska Historical Society strongly urges you to contact President Trump, DOGE’s Elon Musk and the appropriate cabinet members to protest the cuts to congressionally approved funding and to fight to secure future funding for these vital programs for our state.
