2020 Grants Awarded

American Radical, Earthboy LLC, Bonner, $8,000. Phase one support for a film about the Sheridan County Reds, a phalanx of collectivized 1920s wheat farmers in Northeastern Montana.

Landscapes of a Western Mind: The Story of Ivan Doig, Friends of Montana PBS, Bozeman, $9,000. Funding for a documentary about the iconic author as seen through the landscapes that shaped him.

Perma Red Production #1, Perma Red LLC, Missoula, $9,000. Funding for production of the first episode of the limited series based on the novel by Debra Magpie Earling.

Virtual Tours for Cultural Exhibits and Collections, Ravalli County Museum, Hamilton, $2,500. Support to create a virtual tour of the Museum’s exhibits and historic collections.

Invisibilia: An Exhibition of Contemporary Indigenous and African-American Artists, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, $7,500. Humanities Montana funds will support Native American scholars and advisors to create programming around the exhibit.

The Wind from Eden: Montana Weather Stories, Montana State University Library, Bozeman, $4,000. Support for a five-part podcast about the influence of weather on the historic ranching culture of central Montana using the writings of Ivan Doig as a literary lens.

I Am Montana, Year Three, Free Verse Writing Project, Missoula, $5,000. Funding for a collaborative endeavor combining youth arts, writing, and humanities education in five different learning facilities including Billings and Missoula Juvenile Detention Centers, Pine Hills Correctional Facility, Ted Lechner Youth Services Center, and the Billings Career Center.

High Plains Bookfest, Billings Cultural Partners, Billings, $3,000. Support for the three-day festival of free public readings, workshops, and panel discussions, September 24-26.

The Norman Maclean Festival presents Public Lands & Sacred Ground, Alpine Artisans, Seeley Lake, $5,000. Funding for the three-day festival featuring Timothy Egan, Terry Tempest Williams, Doug Peacock, and Debra Magpie Earling, June 25-June 28, 2021.

Montana’s Native People: Perspectives on the Clovis Child, Friends of the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, Livingston, $4,000. Support for phase one work with Montana’s tribal nations to create an exhibit on the Anzick Burial Site.

Life Behind Barbed Wire, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, $5,000. Support for programs related to the internment of Japanese Issei and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII in Missoula, fall 2020.

Crow Dictionary, Crow Language Consortium, Hardin, $5,000. Funds will support recording and transcription of fluent Crow speakers.

All Nations On-Line: Rich Media Exhibits on the Ethnic Heritage of Butte, Butte, $3,500. A series of 17 online cultural exhibits about Butte’s rich ethnic history.

Home Ground Radio, Artemis Common Ground, Helena, $2,500. Continuing support for the weekly interview program that runs on Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio.

Children’s Festival of the Book 2020, Bozeman Public Library Foundation, Bozeman, $2,000. The 13^th annual children’s book festival will feature Chris Barton and Don Tate, November 14.

ASL CAN Film Camp 2020, Conservatory ASL Northwest, Great Falls, $3,200. An eight-day total immersion in American Sign Language, Deaf culture, art and filmmaking for deaf youth from diverse backgrounds, August 7–16.

Thinking as a Community, Merlin CCC, Helena, $3,500. Support for a series of online and in-person philosophy workshops.

Racial Terror Lynchings in Montana, The Montana Racial Equity Project, Helena, $1,300. Support to research and recount the history of racial terror lynchings across Montana.

Great Falls Festival of the Book, Great Falls Public Library, $3,500. An expanded four-day festival will celebrate literature and diverse author’s voices including national best sellers Laura Moriarty and Richard Fifield.

Worlds Apart But Not Strangers: Holocaust Education and Indian Education for All, Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights, $2,500. Humanities Montana will fund an experiential inquiry-based seminar for Montana educators in Billings this summer.

Copyright Workshop for Cultural Heritage Repositories, University of Montana, $1,500. This workshop will help cultural heritage professionals better understand copyright law and risk assessment.

Genocide Awareness Lecture Series, Flathead Valley Community College, $1,500. This year’s Kalispell-based lecture series will focus on genocide around the world in response to an increase in white supremacist activity in the region and nation.

The Write Question, Montana Public Radio, $5,000. The Write Question is a half-hour weekly radio program/podcast that features the literature of, and writers from, the western U.S.

2020 Lecture Series, Elk River Arts & Lectures, $2,500. This series will bring five to six authors to Park County to work with public school children and give free and easily affordable public lectures.

Native Filmmaker Initiative, Big Sky Film Institute, $2,000. Humanities Montana funds will support Native American filmmakers interacting with rural schools.

Plenary Talks: Language Reclamation and Beyond, University of Montana, $5,000. The linguistics program at UM, in conjunction with Chief Dull Knife College, will host a series of talks on indigenous language documentation and reclamation, June 15-26, 2020.

The Montana Book Festival, Arts Missoula, $3,000. The festival is a celebration of literary arts including readings, author signings, panels, workshops, special events, vendor exhibits, and a book fair, held in downtown Missoula in early fall.

The Murder of Frank Little, Death in the West, $1,500. This 10-episode crime history podcast unearths the story of Frank Little, a union organizer who was lynched in Butte in 1917.

Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana, Charlo, $5,000.00. The Ninepipes Museum’s exhibits and humanities programming focuses on the Salish, Kootenai and Pend Oreille tribes of western Montana, as well as the early settlement and development of western Montana and the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Red Paint Creek Development Corporation, Hayes, $5,000.00. Red Paint Creek Development is a Native-led grassroots nonprofit located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation that promotes economic development, food sovereignty, language preservation, education, cultural stewardship and youth leadership.

Harlem Public Library, Harlem, $1,000.00. The Harlem Public Library serves East Blaine County including the communities of Harlem, Turner, Hogeland, Hays, and Lodge Pole on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

Montana Playwrights Network, Helena, $5,000.00. Since 2016, the Montana Playwrights Network (MPN) has offered a wide variety of programming serving beginning and experienced writers of all genres, teachers, librarians, related organizations, businesses and the general public.

Montana History Foundation, Helena, $3,000.00. The Montana History Foundation is a nonprofit that promotes, assists, and benefits the efforts of historical organizations, small museums, and preservation entities across Montana.

Belgrade Community Library, Belgrade, $3,000.00. The Belgrade Community Library received the 2016 Best Small Library in America award and serves all community members.

Blue Heaven Harnessing Hope, Hays, $5,000.00. A nonprofit serving White Clay and Nakoda youth and their families by building skills around culturally relevant equine wellness/therapy activities while celebrating diversity within themselves and their peers.

Boys and Girls Club of Lodge Grass, Lodge Grass, $5,000.00. An afterschool program serving Native American, low-income children through educational opportunities, nutritional food and cooking classes for families, cultural activities for children and their families, and a safe environment where our students can learn about their culture, native foods, do their schoolwork, and gain self-awareness.

Bozeman Art Museum, Bozeman, $5,000.00. An institution that cares for and exhibits a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, and historical importance and serves the community through exhibitions, classes, programs and lectures that connect the participant with an explanatory aspect of the arts -contextualizing and interpreting.

Zootown Arts Community Center, Missoula, $5,000.00. An arts nonprofit and community space for all people in Missoula that showcases diverse voices in their galleries and on their stages.

C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, $5,000.00. An art, culture and history museum featuring the work of American artist Charles M. Russell and more than 13,000 objects that are commonly researched by sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and art scholars, including works of influential historic and contemporary artists of the American West and an extensive ethnographic collection of Plains Indian art.

Center Pole, Garryowen, $5,000.00. A culturally focused Native grassroots nonprofit located on the Crow Indian Reservation that serves Native and non-Native people through cultural and educational activities for youth, a food sovereignty initiative, community and youth development, and social justice education through a bilingual radio station.

Express To Speak INC, Missoula, $5,000.00. An educational nonprofit that serves Montana youth through a curriculum which fosters critical thinking and emotional intelligence through creative expression.

Free Verse Writing Project, Missoula, $3,500.00. An organization whose mission is to empower youth incarcerated across Montana to gain agency over their own narrative and to discover their capacity for creativity, empathy, and engagement in the classroom through lessons in literature and creative writing.

Friends of the Bridger Public Library, Bridger, $3,000.00. A rural library serving Clarks Fork Valley through humanities programming like the annual children’s summer reading program, access to technology and internet, and a collection of fiction and nonfiction books, periodicals, historical newspaper archives, DVDs, and audio books.

Historic St. Mary’s Mission, Inc., Stevensville, $4,000.00. A historic museum that educates residents and visitors about significant aspects of 19th-century history in the Pacific Northwest including the history of the ancestral homeland of the Bitterroot Salish Indians, the 1855 Hell Gate Treaty, and the Tribe’s 1891 removal to the Flathead Reservation as well as the missionaries who established and lived at St. Mary’s Mission.

Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, $5,000.00. A collecting institution focused on the artwork of historic and contemporary local and regional artists that offers classes, critiques by professional artists, and collaborations with regional organizations and events.

International Traditional Games Society, Great Falls, $5,000.00. A Native American nonprofit organization that recovers and restores traditional ways of life through tribal games and activities for the health and well-being of all people.

Kootenai Heritage Council, Libby, $5,000.00. An organization whose mission is to preserve the heritage of Lincoln County by enhancing culture, education, and social and economic wellbeing through all forms of artistic activity and performing arts.

Livingston Depot Foundation, Livingston, $5,000.00. An organization committed to preserving and protecting the historic train station that also presents the arts and culture of the region and provides a unique space for community gatherings and events at the heart of downtown.

The Montana Book Festival, Missoula, $5,000.00. An arts and cultural agency whose mission is connecting art, culture, and community through education, advocacy, and celebration.

Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula, $5,000.00. A museum that offers broad, humanities-based programming focused on relevant cultural issues through exhibits, public tours and lectures, panel discussions, and workshops, most recently focused on under-represented groups such as women and Native Americans.

Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, $5,000.00. A museum that brings humanities content to life through lectures, permanent and changing exhibits, live stream programs, digital exhibits, and a 300,000+ piece cultural history collection in order to share the stories of all people who have called the Northern Rocky Mountain region home.

National Native American Hall of Fame, Great Falls, $5,000.00. An education organization and resource for Indian Education for All that develops and provides inspirational lessons on each of their inductees as role models, inspiration and alternative choices in combating suicide, drugs and alcohol abuse, and stereotyping of Native Americans.

Northern Rockies Heritage Center, Missoula, $4,000.00. An organization whose mission is the preservation of historic Fort Missoula that establishes and fosters historic, cultural, and educational enrichment.

Red Lodge Area Community Foundation, Red Lodge, $5,000.00. An organization focused on community development housed in a historic old school that provides a place for community meetings, conferences, performing arts, lectures, recitals, education, and business incubation for creatives.

Saokio Heritage, Browning, $5,000.00. A community-based organization led by Indigenous women that works to revitalize traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous languages in a modern context.

A VOICE – Art Vision & Outreach In Community Education, Pablo, $5,000.00. A nonprofit led by working artists and authors who work with community leaders and teachers to provide youth with tools to become expressive storytellers, art makers and upstanding citizens, and experience the people and cultures of those with whom they would otherwise not have the opportunity to engage.

City County Preservation Committee, Harlowton, $4,000.00. A historical museum focused on the history, impact, and significance of the railroad across the U.S.

Selis Qlispe Culture Committee, Pablo, $5,000.00. An organization charged with protecting, preserving, and perpetuating the language, culture, and history of the Selis Qlispe.

Copper Village Museum and Art Center, Anaconda, $4,000.00. A small art gallery and museum with rotating local shows, a workshop space for pottery classes, and other art classes for the community and for students.

Friends Forever Mentoring, Ronan, $4,000.00. A Native-led nonprofit that provides a programming designed to enhance the social, emotional, and academic performances of high-risk youth while creating positive change within the families of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Friends of the Glendive Public Library, Glendive, $2,200.00. A rural public library serving Dawson County through evening book discussions, public use computers, meeting rooms, inter-library loan, speakers, summer outdoor movies, and an encompassing system for readers to access books electronically.

Friends of the Liberty County Library, Chester, $4,000.00. A nonprofit that supports the Liberty County Library’s purchase of collection material.

Lewis & Clark Foundation, Great Falls, $4,000.00. An organization that presents Lewis and Clark programs, a Native tipi lodge encampment, Native American dancers, drummers and presenters, and other educational programs and speakers throughout the year.

Many Voices Press, Kalispell, $4,000.00. A nonprofit literary publisher at Flathead Valley Community College that specializes in Native American and other Montana poets, whose mission is to promote literary cultural diversity and to provide publishing opportunities for under-served and rural writers.

Missoula Art Museum , Missoula, $4,000.00. A museum that is known for adventurous programming firmly rooted in the local community, creating artist-based, civically engaged, pro-community, environmentally conscious projects.

Missoula Writing Collaborative, Missoula, $4,000.00. An education nonprofit whose mission is teaching children to love to write by placing esteemed writers and poets from Montana in more than 34 schools for 12- week residencies in individual classrooms that allow students to gain confidence in their skills as young writers and readers, and to explore the exciting possibilities of literature and language.

Musselshell Valley Historical Museum, Roundup, $2,000.00. A museum focused on the community’s agriculture and coal history, and the culture of the European immigrants whose descendants remain in the area.

Paradise Center, Paradise, $4,000.00. An organization whose mission is to preserve and repurpose the historic Paradise School as a vibrant community, arts, and visitors center while providing needed community meeting space, a venue for the performing arts, art classes, and natural and social history exhibits about Glacial Lake Missoula, school history, Paradise railroad legacy, life in early Paradise, and area flora and fauna.

Red Lodge Carnegie Library, Red Lodge, $4,000.00. A rural library serving Carbon County through their collection, literacy programs like storytime, and adult programming like the Lunch and Learn series that strives to promote lifelong learning, stimulate meaningful conversation, and entertain our attendees.

Seeley Lake Historical Society, Inc, Seeley Lake, $700.00. An organization that works to increase the knowledge and understanding of the history of the Seeley Lake area through education, exhibits, and the preservation and interpretation of objects and informational materials related to Seeley-Swan Valley land, resources, people and events.

Western Heritage Center, Billings, $4,000.00. A museum that interprets the history of the Yellowstone River Valley with the goal of emphasizing Montana’s diverse history through traveling exhibits, walking tours, public outreach programs and filmed public programs.

Crow Language Consortium, Hardin, $5,000.00. A Native-led organization whose mission is to preserve the Crow language and to restore it to stability and health through the creation of a new generation of speakers.

The Myrna Loy, Helena, $5,000.00. A culture center that brings a diverse roster of artists into Helena-area schools; conducts workshops in musical tradition, cultural history, and storytelling; hosts community conversations around critical topics; and explores and celebrates place-making and meaning-making in the Montana landscape.

Humanities Institute, Missoula, $4,000.00. An organization that strives to enrich the humanistic tradition at the University of Montana by fostering provocative thinking, innovative research, and sustained public discussion of the human experience.

Circle Community Players DBA Circle Cinema, Circle, $5,000.00. A nonprofit, volunteer-run movie theater that serves the very rural community of Circle (population 600) and the surrounding area of McCone County, with viewing assistance for the deaf, blind, and/or hard of hearing.

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, $5,000.00. An art museum and community center that provides art instruction, history of art instruction, internships, and tours of its historic building.

Dillon Public Library, Dillon, $4,000.00. A library that serves Beaverhead County residents with online services, including access to a seed catalog, so the community can continue to gain the knowledge needed and desired during pandemic times.

Museums Association of Montana, Helena, $5,000.00. An association of museums that serves members and the entire Montana museum community by providing assistance and professional development opportunities through an annual conferences, e-newsletters and website, and advocacy efforts at the regional and national levels.

Loma Earth Science Museum, Loma, $5,000.00. An earth sciences and local history museum with historic displays, and several historic preservation projects in progress.

The History Museum, Great Falls, $5,000.00. An archival research facility and museum whose mission is to preserve the historical and folk heritage of the North Central Montana Region.

The Heritage Museum, Libby, $5,000.00. A volunteer-run museum that serves Lincoln County residents and visitors by sharing the heritage of the area through historical exhibits and archives housed in their historic log building.

The Roxy Theater, Missoula, $5,000.00. An independent theater that curates films for the greater Missoula community in order to respond to community needs and contribute to a collective sense of place by providing opportunities for connection.

Montana Preservation Alliance, Helena, $5,000.00. An organization whose mission is to save and protect Montana’s historic places, traditional landscapes, and cultural heritage through education programs, interpretation of historical sites, thematic research into heritage properties and cultural landscape documentation.

Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History, Missoula, $4,000.00. A military history museum with exhibits and programming about topics in American military history like Fort Missoula’s role in the 1877 Nez Perce War, the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s, women in WWII, Native American veterans, and the African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” stationed at the fort during the 1890s.

Friends of the Butte Archives, Butte, $5,000.00. A nonprofit whose purpose is to benefit the public archives, provide support for programs like the Verdigris Project, All Nations Project, and the Antiques Fair, and underwrite access to online resources and purchase preservation equipment for archival materials.

Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, $4,000.00. A nonprofit responsible for the museum’s fundraising efforts to support educational programs, including the stories of Italian nationals and Japanese Issei who were detained at Fort Missoula during WWII, as well as restoration and preservation efforts.

Tobacco Valley History, Eureka, $2,500.00. An organization dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the Tobacco Valley community by publishing historic works, restoring and preserving historic buildings, artifacts and monuments, and retaining a living link with the past cultures through interpretation, display and programs at the Historical Village.

Northwest Montana Historical Society, Kalispell, $5,000.00. A museum that offers several year-round educational programs, including a history book club, historic film club, and quilting classes in the historic Central School.

WaterWorks Art Museum, Miles City, $5,000.00. An art and art history museum with programs for youth from one-room schools, rural elementary schools, after school programs, and other youth organizations, with a focus on learning about the history and artwork of ancestors.

Old Trail Museum, Choteau, $5,000.00. A museum focused on western life in Montana with exhibits on a local artist who painted with Charlie Russell, Little Shell Tribe history, and Blackfeet Tribe history.

Victor Heritage Museum, Victor, $5,000.00. A heritage museum that provides a connection to history in all its shapes and sizes to the people of Victor, the Bitterroot Valley, and Montana.

Friends of the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, Livingston, $5,000.00. A nonprofit that supports history and archeological programming and exhibits that interpret the cultural and natural history of Park County, Montana and Yellowstone National Park.

Carbon County Arts Guild & Depot Gallery, Red Lodge, $500.00. An organization that provides hart history lectures, art education, and exposure to the visual, performing and literary arts for the benefit of the broadest possible audience.

Conrad Mansion, Kalispell, $5,000.00. A museum that focuses on as the cultural history of Montana during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through entertaining and historically accurate tours that educate the public on the Conrad family and their role in the founding and development of Kalispell in the 1890s.

Montana Library Association, Kingman, $5,000.00. An organization whose mission is to develop, promote, and improve library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

Mai Wah Society, Butte, $5,000.00. A museum that serves Butte visitors and residents through museum tours, an annual Chinese New Year Parade, a Qing Ming (tomb sweeping) event at the Chinese section of a local cemetery, and through social media, raising awareness of the important role that Asian immigrants played in settling the American frontier.

Lewistown Art Center, Lewistown, $5,000.00. A nonprofit whose mission is to promote and provide engaged access to the arts, arts education, and cultural experiences in Central Montana through gallery exhibitions, arts education, Shakespeare in the Park, music nights, and other community-centered activities.

Yellowstone Historic Center, West Yellowstone, $5,000.00. A nonprofit whose mission is to understand, preserve, and interpret the unique cultural heritage of West Yellowstone and the Hebgen Lake Basin, and the connection of that heritage to the development of transportation and visitation to Yellowstone National Park.

Butte America Foundation, Butte, $5,000.00. A social justice organization serving the Butte community through a variety of humanities-focused activities, including an educational community radio station with programming that includes This Week in Labor History, the NEH-funded Verdigris Project (an oral history project), community forums such as Let’s Talk Butte and The Butte Community News Hour, Superfund 101 and 100 Years Ago in Butte.

Conrad Depot Society, Conrad, $5,000. A railroad/train museum that teaches how important the railroad was in settling the Conrad area of MT and shows the continuing importance of the railroad to our rural state through exhibitions of loaned items and a permanent collection.

Miles City Convent Keepers, Miles City, $5,000. A community center and history exhibit for a historic convent built in 1902 that invites visitors to learn about this important part of early Montana history.

Sunburst Arts & Education, Eureka, $2,000. A service organization in north Lincoln County that provides a range of programs from basic classes such as GED/HiSET and ESL to talks, writing workshops, and travelogues by historians, authors, and individuals from different countries and cultures, etc.

Big Sandy Cultural Fund, Big Sandy, $5,000. A community center focused on preserving and showcasing local, rural culture, including archiving writings from B.M. Bower and Dan Cushman, photographs of local residents taken around 1918, and reels of rare home movie film taken in the 1930s and ’40s.

Alpine Artisans, Inc, Seeley Lake, $5,000. A nonprofit in Seeley-Swan Valleys that established the Norman Maclean Festival as a prominent literary, historical and cultural event in Montana.

Bigfork Art & Cultural Center (BACC), Bigfork, $5,000. An organization that hosts a variety of programs and exhibits that span the arts, culture, and history of the northwest Montana, Glacier National Park, and Flathead Valley.

Carbon County Historical Society & Museum, Red Lodge, $5,000. A historical society and museum located in the historic Labor Temple building and established in 1974 to preserve and communicate the history, both human and natural, of Carbon County, Montana and the surrounding area.

Glacier County Historical Museum, Cut Bank, $4,980. A historical museum established in 1980 on a 14-acre track east of Cut Bank to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Glacier County through exhibits, public programming and an archive.

Carter County Museum, Ekalaka, $5,000. A museum that focuses on the acquisition, preservation, management and study of a collection of items from 90 million years of history in southeastern Montana with exhibitions that follow the narrative of the landscape through the deep past and its evolving relationship between a diverse group of indigenous and ranching cultures.

Merlin CCC, Helena, $5,000. A nonprofit organization that serves individuals in the Helena and surrounding areas by providing free programs that support critical, creative thinking, the exchange of ideas, and the application of philosophy to everyday life.

Monarch Neihart Historical Group, Monarch, $2,500. A museum in The Monarch Great Northern Railway depot whose mission is to preserve the history of the area which includes agriculture, mining, recreation, and the railroad.

MonDak Heritage Center, Sidney, $5,000. A heritage center that provides arts, culture, and history resources in eastern Montana where individuals can learn stories about local history, engage with different ideas and perspectives about cultures and developments in Montana and the world, explore artistic and musical perspectives, learn new art techniques, and discover new information.

Range Riders Inc., Miles City, $5,000. A museum with displays about western history and heritage with an emphasis on pioneers, cowboys, cattle drives, horses, rodeo, and the Fort Keogh military encampment.

Ravalli County Museum, Hamilton, $5,000. A museum that focuses on art, local history and natural history to enrich the experiences of the Ravalli community through programming and educational opportunities for people of all ages.

Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitors Center, Seeley Lake, $2,500. A historical museum and visitors center that displays the colorful, immutable, historical and cultural artifacts of the Swan Valley region.

The Extreme History Project, Bozeman, $5,000. A public history organization whose mission is to make history relevant by providing educational opportunities locally, regionally, and statewide through historic walking tours, history-themed workshops, a popular lecture series at the Museum of the Rockies, pop-up history opportunities, a “History After Dark” experiential history program, and more.

The Stevensville Historical Museum, Stevensville, $5,000. A historical museum whose mission is to collect, research, preserve and display the documents, photos, artifacts and records regarding the unique history of the Bitterroot Valley, including the Salish ancestral history in the Bitterroot area, the settlement around Fort Owen, and the development of Stevensville.

Travelers’ Rest Preservation and Heritage Association, Lolo, $4,200. A state park with interpretive programs about Lewis and Clark, the Bitterroot Salish and Nez Perce people, and the natural history of the area.

World Museum of Mining, Butte, $5,000. A historical museum whose mission is to share the history of Butte, MT and mining to allow visitors to experience and learn the history of all the different ethnicities and cultures that made Butte what is today.

Wild Rose Center, Busby, $5,000. A Native American-led organization that serves the Northern Cheyenne and the Crow Indian Reservations as well as a surrounding area of about a 300-mile radius, focusing on Cowboy culture, land use, Native American cultures, local history and native plants and their uses.

Sun River Valley Historical Society, Sun River, $5,000. A historical society focused on the historic Fort Shaw, Fort Shaw Military Cemetery, WWII POW camp, and Indian School at Fort Shaw that provides open houses, tours, school presentations, historical reenactments, speakers, and records for historical and/or family research.

The Fort Connah Restoration Society, Charlo, $5,000. An organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history and culture of Native Americans and the earliest fur traders in Montana with the guidance of the Salish Kootenai college.

Stillwater Historical Society, Columbus, $5,000. A historical society housed in the Museum of the Beartooths whose mission is to collect, preserve, and share the rich history, art, and culture of the Stillwater County area through the stories, art, oral histories, artifacts, and images of residents from the past 100+ years.

Nine Mile Community Center, Frenchtown, $3,000. A community center housed in the historic Stark Schoolhouse that provides humanities programming like the annual Missoula Art Associates fundraising event, demonstrations by the Sapphire Mountain Men on historic pioneer black-powder firearms, and a community Philosophy Walk.

Indian No More, Dillon Middle School, Dillon, $231.90. Support for seventh and eighth-grade classes reading Indian No More.

En-th-a-eye Nłʔay “Place of the Little Bull Trout” 4th Annual Indigenous Film Festival, Missoula Urban Indian Health Center, $1,000. The IFF incorporates multiple aspects of the arts in the story of what it means to be a contemporary American Indian, highlighting resilience, advocacy, and enduring cultural connection from a foundation of historical and intergenerational trauma and loss. The objective of this event is to acknowledge and honor the presence of the American Indian community within Missoula and Indigenous peoples across the world, and to be witness to their resilience as a people as displayed through a contemporary medium of storytelling. Films will be shown March 21 – 22, 2020, at the Missoula Children’s Theatre in Missoula.

One Book Belgrade, Belgrade Community Library, $1,000. One Book Belgrade, the first community read in Belgrade, aims to foster community connections by bringing people together to read. The series of programs will spark conversations related to WWII, love, ethics, espionage, bravery, and family, culminating in a presentation and Q&A with the author.

Hamilton High School Mock UN, Hamilton High School, Hamilton, $610. Humanities Montana awarded a $610 Opportunity Grant to Hamilton High School to fund the participation of their team in The University of Montana’s Annual Model UN High School Conference. Students from Hamilton will participate with other Montana high schools in activities that mimic the operations of the United Nations. As representatives of nations, students collaborate, negotiate, and debate with each other to gain a better understanding of current world affairs and the practices of diplomacy. Hamilton High School’s first-ever model UN team will participate in the conference on November 25^th and 26^th at the University of Montana in Missoula.

One Small Step initiative in partnership with NPR’s StoryCorps, Montana Media Lab, Missoula, $1,000. The Montana Media Lab is partnering with NPR’s StoryCorp to facilitate and record nonpolitical conversations between Montanans on opposite sides of the political divide as part of the One Small Step project. The goal is to break down boundaries created by politics and remember our shared humanity. All conversations were recorded at the University of Montana in December 2019 and can be listened to here.

Theatre in the History Classroom, Havre High School History Department, Havre, $300. Teaching actress Rosie Ayers will come to Havre High School classrooms to use theater and drama to enhance the content and to-role play solutions to common societal problems in America, then and now, under the direction and expertise of Rosie Ayers.

Media, Music and Activism in a Latino Context, Montana State University Billings, Billings, $1,000. Media artist and musician Gabriel Gonzalez will provide insights into a career in the arts from a bilingual and bicultural perspective. He will share his expertise in classrooms and workshops and join MSUB faculty John Roberts and Pan Blanco along with salsa instructors in a Latin Jazz concert.

2019 Indigenous Cinema Series, The Roxy Theater, Missoula, $1,000. The Roxy Theater in partnership with Indigenous Film Festival and Missoula Urban Indian Heath Center is proud to present the Indigenous Cinema Series, a weekly series in November intended to highlight indigenous stories in honor of National Native American Heritage Month.

Native Perspectives and Voices of the 21st Century, School Services of Montana, Bozeman, $300. This professional learning session will feature a roundtable discussion with Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Urban Indian representatives. K-12 Educators will meet at the MOR on November 1 to connect with and share stories across various American Indian tribes, cultures and generations to gain perspective and insight into contemporary Montana Plains Indian life in order to gain a heightened sense of how to integrate and highlight individual American Indian stories and cultural perspectives into their students’ classroom experience, with an emphasis on storytelling.

Celebrating Yellow Bird Woman, UM College of Humanities and Sciences, Missoula, $825. In collaboration with Diverse U’s Diversity Week and Montana’s Elouise Cobell Day, the film 100 Years: One Woman’s Fight for Justice will be shown in the UC Theatre on the UM campus November 5^th from 2-3pm. The film tells the story of Elouise Cobell, a modern-day Blackfeet Warrior, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of nearly half a million Native Americans with support from the Native American Rights Foundation.

The Pink Dress Photography Project, Zootown Arts Community Center, Missoula, $750. An exhibition that showcases photos taken by and featuring young women from Mexico, New York, Los Angeles, and Two River School in Pablo, Montana. The project examines the ways in which left-over pink dresses allowed girls to break the bounds of peer defined ‘normal’ behavior. Facilitated by David J. Spear, photographer, teacher and director of A VOICE-Art Vision & Outreach In Community Education, the project also includes a forum of art professionals who created and implemented the project followed by the young photographers who made the photographs on display at ZACC. Forum panelists include: Julie Hajune, previous director of the CSKT Tribal Department; Jennifer Finley, poet and writer; Dr. Lyn Pentecost, Executive Director and co-founder of The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York City.

Is This Agriculture or Technology? The Story of 1920s Montana Wheat, John Clayton, $1,000. This research fellowship will focus on the Campbell Farming Company, at one time the biggest farm in the country.

Not Guilty, Gabriel Furshong, $1,000. The author will investigate and expose the mysterious dismissal of manslaughter charges against Joseph Edward Furshong, the author’s great-grandfather, as a way of exploring race and class privileges in 1920s Montana.