By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
The Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA) has had a grant from the federal funding cut. NAHA is a national, member-supported center for Norwegian-American studies. Since its founding in 1925, NAHA has been housed on the campus of St. Olaf College. Although both institutions are independent entities, they maintain close cooperation on common causes. The NAHA archives are located in the special collections area of Rolvaag Memorial Library.
According to a statement from the group, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommended the termination of a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities at the beginning of April. The $297,303 grant supports a project to preserve, digitize and make accessible five World War II collections documenting Norwegian-American relief efforts for occupied Norway. Last fall NAHA hired a Project Digitization Archivist to work on the project.
“We were deeply disappointed by the decision to terminate our grant,” said Amy Boxrud, NAHA’s executive director. “We are actively working to challenge this short-sighted decision and find a way to carry out the project. NAHA remains committed to our work of preserving and making accessible the stories of Norwegians in North America.”
The NAHA learned about the grant termination from in an email came from Michael McDonald, acting chair of NEH. He wrote that NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in furtherance of the President’s agenda. It read, in part, “Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including fiscal priorities. The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration, and due to the exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional the notification process is not possible.”
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