The national park service alaska region works to identify and preserve places that are considered significant at the local regional and national level

This Cooperative Agreement award from the National Park Service (NPS) provides $150,000 to support a project between the NPS and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Oral History Program. The project aims to identify, preserve, and provide public access to cultural resource knowledge and oral histories related to the impacts of climate change in Alaska. Key tasks include conducting an inventory and annotated bibliography of existing oral history recordings, collaborating with Alaska's national parks to locate additional source material and potential interviewees, preparing an informational gap analysis, conducting new oral histories, and disseminating results through UAF's Project Jukebox online platform. This project falls under the NPS's Cooperative Research and Training Programs - Resources of the National Park System (CFDA 15.945), which facilitates research and technical assistance to support natural and cultural resource preservation within the National Park System. The award period is from September 1, 2024 to December 31, 2027.

As such documenting different yet complementary knowledges with particular focus on indigenous knowledge of cultural resources threatened by the impacts of climate change advances the mission of the national park service. The UAF oral history program as part of the alaska and polar regions collections archives of the elmer e. Rasmuson library at the university of alaska fairbanks collects and curates recordings that relate to various aspects of alaska s history and the people who have contributed to its rich heritage. As such both organizations preserve critical cultural resources in the state of alaska. Beneficiaries of this project also include federally recognized indian tribal governments federal state and local governments educational or scientific institutions and the public. Tasks include conducting an inventory and preparing an annotated bibliography of existing oral history recordings and documents collaborating with alaska s national parks to locate other source material and potential interviewees preparing an informational GAP analysis providing recommendations and conducting new oral histories and disseminating results in mutually acceptable products that includes project jukebox providing online public access.