Strengthening & Preserving the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation’s Humanities Infrastructure

FAIN: ZDH-283339-22

University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND 58202-6059)
Crystal K. Alberts (Project Director: May 2021 to January 2026)
Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills (Co Project Director: August 2021 to January 2026)

Retaining humanities instructors and staff affected by the pandemic, allowing the continuation of ongoing digitization projects that make more readily available archival material and oral histories related to the history of North Dakota’s Indigenous population. 

Funds will enable a collaborative project between the University of North Dakota and Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, tribally chartered by the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. We will rehire humanities instructors/staff directly impacted by the financial repercussions of the pandemic at UND and will provide training in digital humanities preservation to faculty, staff, and students at NHSC. Faculty, staff, and students at UND will build and expand digital collections related to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation for historical and educational purposes. At NHSC, the team will conduct oral interviews with elders, as well as inventory, preserve, and digitize critically endangered languages resources, and other at risk traditional knowledges. The teams will also facilitate the creation of freely available teaching materials in line with the new state law mandating Native American education and NEH’s special initiative to help create “a more perfect union.”