AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS: Salazar Announces $4.4 Million in Grants for Historic Preservation by American Indian Tribes

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $4.4 million in grants from the Historic Preservation Fund to 117 American Indian tribes to assist with the preservation of important historic and cultural sites and to promote education and interpretation programs.

“As part of our commitment to empowering Indian nations to achieve the future of their choosing, we want to support the agendas of tribes to preserve, interpret, and enrich their heritage,” Secretary Salazar said. “These investments will help not only help protect cultural and historic sites, but also provide tools to spur new economic opportunities in tribal communities.”

The grants are derived from revenues from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf and are used by the National Park Service to make historic preservation grants to Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.

“Assisting tribal historic preservation efforts is one of several ways that we help American Indians recover and safeguard their cultural heritage,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “We are honored to collaborate with tribes on this important front.”

Tribes use the grants to fund projects such as nominations to the NPS's National Register of Historic Places, preservation education, architectural planning, historic structure reports, community preservation plans, and bricks-and-mortar repair to buildings. HPF grants are also made to State Historic Preservation Offices.

Grants and programs funded by the HPF encourage private and non-federal investment in historic preservation efforts nationwide. Recent HPF achievements can be found in its annual report at http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/downloads/2010_HPF_Report.pdf.

For more information about NPS tribal preservation programs and grants, please visit http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tribal/.