Pipestone National Monument Cultural Demonstrator Program

Description

This announcement is to provide public notice of the NPS's intention to award financial assistance for the following project activities without competition. This project creates awareness of American Indian cultural heritage, with emphasis on the preservation of the pipestone pipe making culture and perpetuation of other forms of pipestone carvings representative of American Indian Cultures. The NPS substantial involvement is to collaborate with the recipient to jointly organize and deliver interpretation of the American Indian cultural heritage for promoting historic preservation to the public visiting the park. The cultural demonstrators will educate 70,000 visitors and general public through interpretation about the sacredness and significance of the pipestone. Demonstrators will discuss how American Indians learned to carve; the importance of the pipestone to their heritage; and to be able to educate and share their knowledge of this trade of a potentially dying craft/belief. NPS will assign a coordinator to work directly with the recipient on assigned interpretation and daily contact and activities. The public purpose is to enhance and foster visitors’ understanding and appreciation of the contemporary and historic American Indian use and significance of the pipestone quarries. The project promotes greater public and private participation in historic preservation programs, and activities. The Recipient has contacts and contextual understanding of the park's resources and its historical/traditionally associated use with regard to the rock material being carved into Plains Indian style pipes.

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