IHC - NEH Event

Robyn Achilles, Executive Director for Friends of Minidoka, was invited by the Idaho Humanities Council to Idaho Falls to meet with National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelley Lowe and her staff.

Robyn shared FOM’s work that has been supported by IHC, including: our documentary Betrayed: Surviving and American Concentration Camp; 80 Years of Reckoning — a three part series about multigenerational trauma as part of IHC Connected Conversations; Kurt Ikeda’s IHC Award for Excellence in the Humanities; and the recent grant for programming in September 2024 focusing on the Minidoka draft resisters and the 80th anniversary of their trial in Boise. Museum of Idaho, Idaho State Historical Society, The Community Library, the Welsh Festival, and high school educator Honore Storms also presented their work. Congressman Mike Simpson attended in support of the humanities.

Later that evening, Friends of Minidoka attended the Idaho Humanities Council’s Distinguished Lecture with author Angeline Bouline at Fort Hall. Randy’L Teton (IHC Board Member and Member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall), NEH Chair Lowe, and author Angeline Bouline discussed her young adult novel, Fire Keeper’s Daughter, a Printz Medal Winner, a Morris Award Winner, and an American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book. Shoshone-Bannock youth dancers opened and closed this meaningful event.