The state of Idaho has begun its series of events leading up to the nation's 250th birthday celebration on Independence Day.
But other Gem State organizations are developing their own plans, including the Idaho Humanities Council. Its associate director, Johanna Bringhurst, says that includes two major events to held in the Panhandle.
The first is a two-day festival in Moscow on August 28 and 29.
"It's called Roots of a Nation. We're going to do a film festival (at the Kenworthy Theater) and have some fun looking at films that show how we remember our history through film," Bringhurst said.
"We'll have humanities experts just discussing and thinking about how do we remember history and how did we remember it in the past and how do we want to remember it in the future through through art. The folk life festival portion will be a bunch of hands-on engagement stations. We're hoping intergenerational families will come out and have an opportunity to do hands-on activities and learn more about life in early Idaho."
The council's partners for that are Idaho Public Television and the Latah County Historical Society.
Then, on October 29, the council will welcome astronaut Scott Kelly to the Coeur d'Alene Resort to deliver its North Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
"We thought that an astronaut and author who has looked at humanity from that incredible view might have some thoughts on the human experience and and what he learned and what he took away from his year living on the International Space Station and being a part of that international effort for many years," Bringhurst said.
In addition to those, the council will hold its annual summer training session with K-12 teachers.
"We had to do our America 250th Summer Teacher Institute last summer to help teachers be prepared for this school year to commemorate the 250th with their students," she said.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
DN: Tell me about when planning began for the 250th birthday celebrations with your organization.
JB: Probably two years ago. The reason being that because a lot of our funding comes through the National Endowment for the Humanities, we plan budgets and programs well in advance. Sometimes our funding is delayed, and working with partners all over the state of Idaho, it just requires advanced planning.
DN: What are some of the things that excited you when you heard ideas?
JB: We are really interested in the humanities being a place that brings people together across divides. Everyone is welcome in the humanities.
We've been concerned about political divisiveness in our country and in our state, probably like everyone for a long time, but in recent years in particular. So the 250th is this incredible opportunity to bring people together across those political divides. And I think that was central to what was exciting and what we hoped we could accomplish during this commemoration period.
DN: I assume the Humanities Council put out some sort of call for ideas and programs that you would fund. What were the things that you were looking for?
JB: The way that we do that is through our grants program. We meet our mission by doing some of our own programs that we produce, like the Teacher Institute, and then doing grants.
We had planned for a major grant round last fall and right now this early spring period. Unfortunately, last year, the Department of Government Efficiency illegally terminated funding to state Humanities Councils and to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our funding was cut by over 50% last year and so we were not able to offer a major grant round either last fall or this spring.
Our funding was just signed by President Trump the week before last, where the NEH grant was funded through the Department of Interior, so we are expecting funding for this year to be restored to what it was at the FY 2025 levels. We hope that that will be the case and that that funding will be released as mandated by Congress.
If that is the case, then we will have a major grant round this summer and we hope that we will still be able to support meaningful programming that will happen later in the summer and in the early fall.
DN: That's four and a half months away. It doesn't give your organizations a lot of time to figure it out, assuming with going with the idea that we're going to have some money to actually plan something to do.
JB: Yeah, it's been pretty wild. I will say I think the 250th has been the most disappointing part of those cuts, not just for us, for every state Humanities Council and for many people who had NEH grants that were terminated. The 250th was central to a lot of that.
We have been able to do some small grants. We have two grant lines that are a thousand dollars and less. One is an action grant and one is a K-12 grant for teachers. So we have been able to fund field trips and book purchases for K-12 teachers that are connected to the 250th. We have also been able to do action grants that are connected to the 250th. Those usually go to smaller museums, historical societies, organizations like that in rural parts of our state.
When our funding was terminated, we had already funded a program called Let's Talk About It, which is in partnership with the Idaho Commission for Libraries. We've done this program together for many years. It is about adult book discussion groups. For this year, we created a new theme, America's 250th, and a committee of humanities experts selected book titles connected to the 250th and starting this spring and going into the fall, but mostly the spring and summer. There are six libraries in rural parts of Idaho that are hosting these discussion groups about America's 250th. The Humanities Council funding purchases the books, and we pay a stipend to humanities scholars to lead the book discussions. Each library does a discussion every month for six months.
DN: In a normal year, would something like a 250th anniversary stop on July 4 at the anniversary date? Or would it continue going on throughout the year, saying that 2026 is the important year, not necessarily just the date of the 4th of July?
JB: What we were thinking was July 4, 2025 to July 4, 2026 would be this build up to the commemoration and a lot of scholarship, a lot of thinking, a lot of programs to get people thinking. What is the legacy of the Declaration of Independence? What are the principles laid out in the declaration and how have they shaped American history, American culture, American civil life?
As you know, there's a lot of controversy around how to commemorate the 250th. Here in Idaho, we have five federally recognized tribes and July 4, 1776 is maybe not a day that they want to celebrate, but it is an opportunity for us in Idaho to consider Idaho's history and how have we as a people implemented the values of the Declaration of Independence or how haven't we?
You know, Idaho is a part of the country and we here are part of the legacy of our founding fathers and mothers, as well as this meeting place of Indigenous people who were here for thousands and thousands of years before European settlers came. And we're also the home to so many different groups of immigrants and refugees across time who have made their home here. People seeking religious liberty, people seeking economic opportunity. We've all come together and we all love this land.
So this is such a great opportunity to think about what being an American means and who do we want to be? Who do we want to be as Americans, as Idahoans? What do we want that to represent?
DN: Given the hoo-ha about immigration in the United States and who's truly an American and who's not, have you had to sort of tap dance around some of those discussion areas that might be considered, I hate to say it like this, taboo?
JB: I don't know if tap dance is the right word, but we do believe that the humanities is like the perfect place for discussion about these controversial issues and that we should be able to disagree with each other. We should be able to have different points, different perspectives, bring our different stories together and still be a united people. That's maybe something that we've forgotten how to do. Or we've decided we don't like to be uncomfortable. And so we don't come together to disagree anymore. And so we more see the work of the Humanities Council as this forum for getting comfortable being uncomfortable.
DN: Do you anticipate you're going to have events as far into the fall and maybe later on in this year than you may have planned because of your funding interruptions?
JB: Yes. I think the idea of Beyond the 250th is something that resonates with a lot of people. And so I expect maybe that like July 4, 2026 for the next year to 2027 will be a time of thinking and doing programming and providing funding about what are the next 50 years, the next 250 years going to be like? What do we want? What do we expect?
