Project Grant RFW29943224

This $147,340 federal Project Grant award from the National Endowment for the Humanities' Promotion of the Humanities Research program (CFDA 45.161) will support a 3-year ethnographic study by the Sealaska Heritage Institute to document the cultural, ceremonial, nutritional, and artistic significance of black seaweed for indigenous communities in Southeast Alaska. The project will focus on how the harvesting, utilization, and distribution of this culturally important species are being impacted by climate change. The grant will enable the Institute, an Alaska Native nonprofit organization, to collaborate with local tribal communities to preserve traditional ecological knowledge, develop educational resources, and mobilize findings to raise awareness of the importance of black seaweed for Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples.