Washington State receives federal grant to document FilAm contributions

FILIPINO AMERICAN NATIONAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Filipino Americans board ships in Seattle to work in Alaska's canneries.

Washington State University will receive a federal grant to identify, document and commemorate contributions from its large Filipino American community.

The grant from the Underrepresented Communities grant program administered by the National Park Service was made to the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, according to a news release from the state agency.

The project is a part of the state's Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation’s initiative to commemorate all underrepresented communities in the state, the agency said in a statement.

Its goal is to record oral histories, identify primary source documents and recognize important sites and buildings relevant to Filipino Americans, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.

The state of Washington has the fifth highest concentration of Filipinos in the U.S., according to the 2010 census.

The state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation received the grant from the National Park Service, which announced in June that it would award $750,000 in grants to identify important information from underrepresented communities across the country.

The National Park Service announced in June that it has awarded $750,000 in Underrepresented Community Grants to support the identification and nomination of sites to the National Register of Historic Places, the news release said. The Underrepresented Community grant program focuses on documenting the homes, lives, landscapes and experiences of underrepresented peoples who played a significant role in national history.

For more information about the grants and the Underrepresented Community Grant Program, visit https://www.nps.gov/preservation-grants/community-grants.html.