Assistance program
Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program
$21.6 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services
- Assistance
- Project Grants;Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 45.308
- What it does
- The Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services program (NANH) supports Indian Tribes and organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians in sustaining heritage, culture, and knowledge. The program supports projects such as educational services and programs, workforce professional development, organizational capacity building, community engagement, and collections stewardship. GOAL: Build the capacity of Native American Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to provide museum services to their communities. Obj. 1: Support the preservation and perpetuation of Indigenous languages and cultural practices. Obj. 2: Support the professional development of the workforce of Indigenous museums. Obj. 3: Support the management and care of Indigenous collections and their associated documentation.
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- Federally Recognized Indian Tribe: To be eligible for funding as this type of entity, an organization must be an “Indian tribe,†which means any Tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaska native village, regional corporation, or village corporation (as defined in, or established pursuant to, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)), which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians. A list of eligible entities is available from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Nonprofit Organization that Primarily Serves and Represents Native Hawaiians: To be eligible for funding as this type of entity, an organization must be a nonprofit that primarily serves and represents Native Hawaiians, as that term is defined in 20 U.S.C. § 7517. In order for a museum to be eligible, it must demonstrate that it is established as an organization that meets this statutory eligibility criteria.
- Authorized by
- Museum and Library Services Act (20 USC CHAPTER 72).
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments