The turtle mountain band of chippewa indians will enhance the turtle mountain college library's ability to preserve the tribe's cultural knowledge by digitizing their audio and video collections, a…

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians $129,939 on October 1, 2026, under the Native American and Native Hawaiian Library Services program (CFDA 45.311) to digitize and preserve the Turtle Mountain College Library's audio and video collections documenting tribal cultural knowledge, language, and history.

The recipient will transcribe approximately 500 existing recorded interviews capturing stories, language, and historical knowledge shared by elders and community members, and will collect new oral histories from additional elders and community members. An archivist will organize, preserve, and prepare all collected materials for long-term digital preservation and public access. The digitized materials will be added to an accessible online collection using open-source platforms such as Mukurtu, with the goal of increasing usage and patron satisfaction with digital resources for Turtle Mountain tribal citizens in the geographically remote area of Rolette County in northern North Dakota.

Place of performance is Belcourt, North Dakota. The period of performance runs from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2028.

The turtle mountain band of chippewa indians will enhance the turtle mountain college library's ability to preserve the tribe's cultural knowledge by digitizing their audio and video collections, a need identified through community feedback and library assessments. Grant funds will support the transcription of approximately 500 existing recorded interviews capturing valuable stories, language, and historical knowledge shared by elders and community members. The project will also support the collection of new oral histories from elders and other community members. An archivist will organize, preserve, and prepare collected materials for long-term digital preservation and access. A key goal of the project is increasing the number of digitized materials added to the accessible collection via the website and appropriate open source, for example, murkutu. As a result, the library hopes to see increased usage and satisfaction with the quality of the experience and digital resources, directly benefiting the turtle mountain tribal citizens in the geographically remote area of rolette county in northern north dakota.