Amplifying Narratives – 2022 Preservation Planning Grant Year in Review

Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana, the subject of a 2022 NPS ABPP Preservation Planning Grant, awarded to Little Bighorn College.

Bob Reece, Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield

In 2022, the Director of the National Park Service, Chuck Sams III, laid out seven priorities to guide the NPS commitment to preserving and protecting natural and cultural landscapes across America. Every year, the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) strives to achieve these priorities through our grant programs. These priorities were used to frame our reflection of Program accomplishments in 2022 and in consideration of areas for improvement.

Director’s Priority: Respect and strengthen Indigenous connections, enhance our nation-to-nation relationships, and fully uphold our trust and treaty responsibilities.

In 2022, NPS ABPP focused on the Director’s call to respect and strengthen the agency’s connections with Indigenous communities by supporting the development of Indigenous centered preservation projects at sites of armed conflict through the financial assistance of NPS ABPP Preservation Planning Grants. In 2022, nearly $1.2 million in these grants were awarded to 14 different organizations across 10 states to fund an array of diverse interpretation and planning activities. Over half of this funding went to organizations that prioritized preservation efforts focused on Indigenous narratives at sites of armed conflict.

One grant awarded to Little Bighorn College, a Tribally Controlled College in Crow Agency, Montana, will fund the College’s efforts to reexamine the historic interpretation of the Great Sioux War through the lens of American popular culture. The project centers on a multi-day symposium that will be hosted by Little Bighorn College and gather Crow Agency community members, as well as academics, to discuss how pivotal battles of the conflict are mythologized by American cinema. These discussions will then influence Little Bighorn College’s archival research and oral history initiatives to amplify Indigenous voices and enhance public understanding of the Plains Indian Wars and its legacy among today’s descendant communities.

Eight other 2022 grant recipients will develop projects which aim to amplify Indigenous narratives through engagement and participation of Tribal communities. Braddock’s Battlefield History Center in Pennsylvania will develop an interpretive plan for Braddock’s Battlefield, where British troops, French soldiers, and several Tribes of the Ohio Valley clashed in a decisive engagement of the Seven Years’ War. Another grant awarded to the University of New Mexico will fund the creation of digital exhibits and interactive experiences to tell of the Indigenous Tewa communities’ resistance to Spanish colonization in the Southwest. Both projects will invite Tribal and descendant communities to provide input and guidance to strive for an accurate reflection of Indigenous histories.

NPS ABPP is proud to financially support preservation projects that work to collaboratively strengthen Indigenous connections at sites of armed conflict over the past year, but also recognizes the continuous room to improve Program outreach efforts. While many 2022 grants support projects which amplify Indigenous history, only two percent of the total applicants came from Tribal governments. As we look towards 2023, NPS ABPP strives to expand Tribal engagement with our grant programs by continuing outreach strategies and fostering relationships.

Check out a summary of all the Preservation Planning Grants awarded in 2022, here!