The Northern Marianas Humanities Council funds activities that support humanities growth in the Marianas, including a program that gathers community members to discuss cultural values from the Chamorro and Carolinian communities.
LEO Pangelinan, executive director of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, said they have to cancel the community grants program, pause the My Marianas Writing Contest, and are searching for alternative revenue streams after funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities was cut on Thursday.
The funds included $520,000 in General Operating Support grant from the United States Congress; around $73,333 in Pacific Island Cultural Initiative grant; and $25,000 from United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture Initiative.
The Humanities Council aims to “navigate and explore the human experiences of the indigenous and diverse peoples of the Commonwealth.” It supports, among other things, research, community dialogue, and publications.
Pangelinan said without a new funding source, the council staff may also need to be cut.
Projects that have not already drawn funds from the council or projects it has not already started are also on hold.
He said NEH funding cut is part of the presidential actions taken by the Trump White House.
The community grants program awarded funds to researchers and community members to support “innovative, community-based projects that align with a humanities discipline.” To that end, the council has funded documentaries, books, lectures, and more. Grant amounts ranged from $1,500 up to $15,000.
The My Marianas Writing Contest is an annual writing contest for CNMI high school students. It awards cash prizes to the top three entries. It also publishes the work of winners and around a dozen other entries from the contest.
In a news release, the council stated: “Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities were terminated effective immediately in furtherance of President Trump’s agenda and fiscal priorities…. The cuts to the Northern Marianas Humanities Council are severe and account for approximately 93% of their entire operational budget.”
Pangelinan said the humanities officials of other jurisdictions, such as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and all states, have likewise received notices that their funding was terminated.
“It’s not because of anything [the Humanities Council] did individually or singularly, it’s something that’s applied across the board to other councils,” he said. “As far as I know, we’ve had excellent financial audit reports for the past 15 years.”
Humanities Guahan, Guam’s state humanities agency, said federal cuts are “jeopardizing decades of work that uplift our stories, support education, and connect generations.”
Pangelinan is not optimistic about funding opportunities from the Trump administration.
“I think for the foreseeable future and probably throughout President Trump’s term, we can’t expect investments from the federal government,” he said. “The reality is councils all across the nation and what they stand for, what they’re trying to do in terms of advancing the humanities, celebrating our cultural differences, exploring, examining, and ensuring that we can preserve our cultural heritage, our history — that doesn’t seem to be of value to this administration. Hence the cuts.”
He calls on past grant recipients of the council to write to U.S. Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds with messages of support for the humanities.
“I’m encouraging people that have participated in our programs, who know what we do and the value of what we do — thinking critically about our identity, our history — please share that with Representative Hinds so she has that fuel [and] a stock of information that she can bring to Congress. She can say, ‘Hey this is what this is doing to my community. If you don’t continue to invest in the humanities we’re going to lose these programs that preserve our culture and our way of life.’ ”
Pangelinan also urged the public to, among other things, write a letter or op-ed to Marianas Variety, like and share the council’s social media messages, or “make a cash donation today to protect the humanities in the Marianas.”
He added, “More than ever, your voice and action for the humanities is so important. Thank you for your support and courage to stand with us in this fight to protect the vitality of our cultural heritage and the work we do together to navigate and explore the human experience.”
