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The first public event and educator workshop supported by a National Park Service grant will be conducted in September in Missoula, Montana. Leaders of five Japanese American confinement site …
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The first public event and educator workshop supported by a National Park Service grant will be conducted in September in Missoula, Montana. Leaders of five Japanese American confinement site organizations determined the event during their inaugural meeting April 4-6.
Exiled to the Rockies brings together the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF) with the Amache Alliance of Colorado, Friends of Minidoka from Idaho, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Montana, and the Topaz Museum of Utah. These groups and their National Park Service affiliates participated in three days of workshops and planning at Heart Mountain’s Mineta-Simpson Institute.
Thanks to a $778,000 grant from the Japanese American Confinement Education (JACE) program of the National Park Service, HMWF and its partner organizations will bring the workshops to their various states and to those that now require the teaching of Asian American history in public schools.
Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin led the participants through a series of discussions about teaching methods, outreach to educators, accessibility, and the workshops’ structure. Susan Kamei, a professor from the University of Southern California and a Heart Mountain descendant, is devising the workshop content with Sybil Kawano, Heart Mountain’s museum educator.
“There were so many conversations and ideas shared with one another,” said Robyn Achilles, executive director of the Friends of Minidoka. “We look forward to future partnerships in addition to the teacher workshops and visiting your sites this year.”
Eric Muller, a University of North Carolina Law School professor, will lead professional ethics seminars for law students as part of the program, while Lia Nitake, an HMWF board member and descendant, has led the creation of the Legacies of Incarcerated Nikkei Connect (LINC) database that will help educators establish connections between Japanese American incarceration sites and their communities.
Shirley Ann Higuchi, HMWF board chair, told the conferees it’s essential for the five organizations to band together to tell their stories effectively.
